Morning blues see Cross go down again

09/06/2012

Gerrards Cross 202ao (59.3 overs)
Harefield 206-4 (48.4 overs)
Harefield won by 6 wickets

Gerrards Cross suffered their third league defeat in five games at home to Harefield.

Harefield dominated the morning session, after choosing to field, reducing the Cross to 92-6 at lunch, with only Jack Kilgannon (42) offering any real resistance.

The Cross found their backbone after the break with Sam Westaway (52*) and Steve Rimmer (33) sharing a 42-run stand. The end was nigh with the Cross nine wickets down for 149, but Westaway and Tom Hampton (24) set a record tenth wicket stand of 52 – beating the previous of 51 by Richard Graham and Tony Evans against Staines in 1990 – to add some respectability to the score and the Cross were all out in the last over for 202.

Simon Macey (59) and Richard McLeod (28) continued Harefield’s dominance with an opening stand of 82. Harefield then lost four wickets in five overs and the Cross saw a glimmer of hope with the score on 95-4 and Harefield needing 108 run to win off 19 overs.

However, Akshay Reddy (41*) and Ollie Richards (61*) re-asserted Harefield’s supremacy with an un-broken fifth wicket stand of 111 as Harefield cruised to victory by six wickets.