Brighton Brunswick CC | Sussex Martlets

Match Report

With the threat of light showers in the air Brighton Brunswick won the toss and elected to bat on a typical Arundel surface, however the wicket was towards the edge of the square which gave a short boundary on one side.

Excellent tight bowling from Chris Borsoi and Jon Lord saw playing and missing from the opening batsman until Borsoi found the edge of Gould and was caught by David Kirtley at third slip in the seventh over with the score at 14. Once the ball stopped swinging the Brunswick onslaught began with the next 15 overs yielding a partnership of 115 between Ul Haq and Gatting (63), the later falling to a slip catch by PJ Stevens from the bowling of Steve Perry. Martlets managed to engineer a runout just before lunch, Brunswick 141/3 at the break. After lunch another productive 15 overs for the batting side saw 90 runs scored. The introduction of spinner PJ Stevens into the bowling attack proved a master class! With his reluctance to bowl with a short legside boundary and his third ball going for six he picked up the wicket of the dangerous Aussie Matthew Junk (43) and in the fourth ball of his next over Ul Haq (124). Stevens picked up a further two wickets, both bowled, to finish with figures of 24 for 4 from 5 overs. Brunswick declared at 282, however those with local knowledge and one particular umpire decreed that BB had batted for too long! Time of declaration 15.22!

With potentially time for only 45 overs in reply and a tricky period of batting before along with contenting with fast bowler Carl Simon, Martlets got off to a steady and assured start to lay a solid platform for later in the game. Having negotiated a wicketless 11 overs from Simon, two overs before the last hour of play and a 110 partnership either side of tea between David Kirtley and Sam Carter, the latter was struck down by injury. Carter had suffered a muscle injury and had to be helped from the field after making an excellent 43. So with 22 overs left, 8 wickets in hand and 150 runs required Martlets had it all to do! Paul Glover (44) and David Kirtley (113) carried on the good work, the former dismissed at 212 the latter 225, with 8 overs left. 2 more quick wickets followed as with runs Martlets still needed 50 from 6 overs. Over 42 proved to be the turning point, Simon was due to return the following over, Lord (19) & Trubshaw (25) scored 22 from the over bowled by Junk which included 2 consecutive 6’s from Lord. Simon bowled Lord first ball of his returning spell and with the last ball of his second over Trubshaw was caught in the deep with only 2 runs required to win. Chris Borsoi hit the winning runs with a delightful shot through the covers for 4, Sussex Martlets won by 3 wickets with 9 balls remaining. The Skipper would like to thank all those who played in the fixture, the umpires and the scorers, whilst not forgetting the catering staff.