Penn Street vs Cranbourne

Cranbourne 105-10 (Kirton 25; G. Henry 4-26, P. Goodchild 3-24) beat Penn Street 63-10 (D. Ribaudo 41; Crick 5-3, Percy 3-9)) by 42 runs

If ever there was a Penn Street performance of two halves, this was it!!

Cranbourne at home - one of our few remaining timed games and a fixture that normally proves a close contest against this useful Windsor side.

Winning the toss and fielding first, the lads continued their good run of excellent fielding performances with a stirling effort to dismiss Cranbourne for 105 well before the scheduled tea time.

Grant Henry should be singled out above all for an inspired spell of fast medium swing bowling and faultless slip catching. Only his stunning catch to close the innings denied him the 5 wicket haul he deserved, eventually ending with 4 wickets and 2 catches to his name.

Goody also deserves a mention for an excellent return to the side with 3 wickets which most notably took him from 247 to 250 career wickets for Penn Street! Well done Goody - here's to the next 250!!

At tea then, it would be fair to say we were buzzing with anticipation of a first victory even though it was clear it was most definitely a day for the bowlers! Martin Hallam and Matt Reavey entered the crease intent on laying the foundations for the innings, with all the time in the world on their hands.

Sadly, it just wasn't to be. First Martin was unluckily the victim of the dreaded finger, then Matt had his stumps demolished as the ball continued to swing all over the place. By the time the Cranbourne left armer had hit full stride, he'd removed our entire top and middle order with a spell of 5 for 3!!

Skipper Cherriott was the first to offer some resistance batting down at 8, until he was caught behind just as he looked to be getting set.

At 10 for 7, the game had looked gone, but Damian Ribaudo fought back admirably with a superb 41 that at least spared us a small amount of embarrassment!

In the end we fell well short - all out for 63, wondering what had just hit us!! Five of us registering ducks!!

A shocking end then, to a game that promised so much, and a real chance to give our season some momentum missed.

Plenty to work on in the new batting net!!!! See you Thursday!!