Frogs CC

Martlets arrived at Horsham CC in bright sunshine but to a wet wicket after the overnight rain. However, Rebbetts won the toss and chose to bat as previous experience batting at Horsham had never let him down! Unfortunately, Rebbetts was mistaken as batting proved very tough early on with plenty of seam movement and swing on offer to the opening bowlers of Trevedi and Marshall. Marshall struck in his first over trapping youngster Harvey Roberts LBW as one nipped back in. Simon Warrender arrived to partner Rebbetts in what would be a tough first 10 overs. Rebbetts hit his first ball for four but struggled and got bogged down with some excellent bowling after that and Warrender took over with a few beautiful cover drives. However, it was a cover drive that lead to his downfall chipping one to gully to fall for 14. As the rain came down, Rebbetts fell to the final ball before the teams took themselves off, also trapped LBW to an inswinger. A big loss to the Martlets just before the rain break. After that the English weather took over and the Martlets went on and off for rain three times over the course of the next 10 overs, making it very difficult for the Martlets duo of chairman Stuart Ritchie and Joe De Souza. However, there was no further loss of wickets for 25 overs, giving Martlets some momentum. De Souza was the first to 50, as Martlets recovered from 34-4 to 137-5, before the chairman fell for the unfortunate 49, an excellent innings from Stuart showing he still has plenty of appetite for runs. The Martlets finished on 149/6 from their 40 overs. A decent total considering the rain delays and wet wicket.

Rebbetts was looking for another win as match manager this season and opened with the ever dangerous Murray and new player Ali Dell. Murray was of course the first to strike getting yet another player caught at mid wicket! Om Khot was on first change and started excellently finding some turn and bounce to restrict the Frogs batsmen. T Pascal was striking it nicely at one end though and moved to 50 pretty quickly. George Cave bowled with some fire power without much reward. Martlets were restricting the Frogs to under 4 an over but had only taken 1 wicket as the score crept to 94. Rebbetts decided that it was some time for himself to have a bowl and was immediately rewarded with a wicket when Lawton edged behind for just 14. Ravi Cryer came on at the other end and also looked dangerous as he had O Gorman caught at mid off by Murray. The score was still moving and they got to 119 before Rebetts got the main man Pascal for 83. It would be a miracle for Sussex Martlets with 6 wickets to find and only 30 runs left to protect. Extras were proving to also be the downfall of Martlets as they ended on 24, comfortably the second highest score. Rebbetts got another wicket, caught at backward point as Marshal skewed a drive off the outside edge. However, the luck was on their side as Rebbetts found the edge twice in his next over, one off the outside and one inside, both flying for four past the wicketkeeper. Frogs reached the target ironically with four byes in the 36th over to win by 4 wickets. A bit of a kick in the teeth as Martlets battled against the weather, conditions and bad luck in the field. An excellent effort by all shown to try and defend the small total. Martlets are back in action on Thursday at Horsham once again and will look to get back to winning ways. Highlights from the day were Joe De Sousa scoring 55, Stuart Ritchie scored 49 and Rebbetts took 3/35.

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