Southgate 1st XI vs Woodford Wells 1st XI
The season got off to a slow start for Southgate 1’s as they struggled to slip it up a gear against a Woodford Wells side that dominated with the bat. The sunny weather provided a splendid welcome back to the season and was matched with a solid batting wicket that only got better throughout the day.
Southgate won the Toss and opted to bat, keen to take advantage of perhaps the best preseason wicket at the Walker Ground in recent memory. The innings got off to a promising start with steady scoring and a smattering of eye-catching boundaries, most notably from top scorer Sunny Kanuparthi (32) and Max Joseph (19) with four apiece. However, lapses of concentration and soft dismissals saw good starts not converted into meaningful runs with only 2 batsmen making it over 20 runs throughout the innings.
The middle order struggled to shake off the cobwebs of the offseason. What was a promising position of 80-2, despite an explosive rear-guard action from Pasoon Rahman (27 off 20), petered out to 170 all out, with a valuable 6.4 overs unused.
Woodford Wells wasted no time taking advantage of the good batting conditions. Southgate’s opening bowlers had no answer for the impressive boundary hitting from Woodford’s opening pair who were both retired on 50. A late fight back from leggies Lawrence Perry and Nikhil Ravikrishnan (or ‘Shin-diesel’ as he was affectionately called, after copping a nasty blow to the shin from a wayward throw in the warmup), proved too little too late with Woodford Wells winning by 7 wickets.
There were many positives to take away from an altogether underwhelming performance. It was good to see old faces return, and to welcome some new, in a match that was played in good spirits with moments throughout that showed promise to come. With further preparation there is a lot to look forward to in the coming season, both on and off the field.
William McLoughlin