Video & Gallery: Ely Sunk By Resilient Cottenham
A VALIANT battling effort from the City of Ely II went unrewarded at the weekend as Cottenham II edged to a narrow three wicket victory. Though Ely s play with both bat and ball was pleasingly fluid and easy on the eye, they were ultimately undone by thei
A VALIANT battling effort from the City of Ely II went unrewarded at the weekend as Cottenham II edged to a narrow three wicket victory.
Though Ely's play with both bat and ball was pleasingly fluid and easy on the eye, they were ultimately undone by their slightly emaciated run-count which, had it been a mere 10 runs better, could easily have secured the victory.
Sent into bat first, Ely settled well at the crease and openers W Farnaby and S Jackson soon had the measure of their bowling adversaries on what was an altogether slovenly surface.
However, once the opening pairing were removed there followed a distinct lull in the flow of runs, and a bountiful stream of scoring soon became barren patch of singles as Ely struggled to get the ball far beyond mid-wicket.
To their credit however, the pairing of Robbie Mani and C Porter-Thaw stuck to their task with commendable pluck and, as the match started to move towards the business end, the pair began to open their shoulders.
Where they had struggled to find their eye previously, the pair soon found their feet and Mani in particular proved notably adept at punishing any delivery with pretentions on his leg stump.
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By the end of the innings Mani (48) and Thaw (41) had pushed the scoring rate from an inadequate three an over to a distinctly more defendable four, with a final total of 159-6.
Things began promisingly in reply for Ely as the combined efforts of pacemen Mark Deas and A Dickinson saw the visiting top four, oft considered a line-ups best batsmen, removed for the pleasingly cheap total of 18.
Thereafter though, the game settled into a showing of Trojan-like resistance from Cottenham and, as deftly as thief in the night, they manoeuvred themselves from a hopeless cause to certain victory, albeit aided by a staggering tally of 29 extras.
The visitors clinched an unlikely victory with less than 10 balls remaining, despite the efforts of Deas (3-25) who led the way with the ball.
