Game One: 1st XI vs Potterne 1st XI, Away

Potterne v Bristol, WEPL Premier 1, 6 May 2017

Bristol’s first team made an inauspicious start to their 2017 WEPL Premier 1 campaign: bowled out in the 34th over and defeated by six wickets barely three hours later. The Bristol team was missing captain Will Rudge, who had sustained a footballing injury, and Kiwi batsman Will Young whose visa had been delayed. Newcomer Neil Patel was also unavailable. At Potterne’s picturesque postage-stamp of a ground, where the boundary rope at backward point, swerving to avoid a tree, almost overlaps the thirty yard circle, and a pair of lugubrious horses lumber to-and-fro behind the sightscreen at the northern end, stand-in skipper James Bracey lost the toss.
Put in to bat by Potterne, Bracey was soon returning to the pavilion, given out LBW off the last ball of the second over. His opening partner, Fin Trenouth, however, repeatedly bludgeoned the ball to various parts of the surrounding countryside while at the other end batsmen came and went with almost as much rapidity as the runs were rattling up on the scoreboard. Roderick advanced down the wicket to his first ball and edged to the keeper, and when Fellowes was bowled to give Higgins the second of four wickets, it was 50 for 3. Ten balls later Trenouth, who up to this point had appeared to be playing a different game to his team-mates, missed a straight one and was LBW having made 48 (off 33 balls) of his team’s 57 runs. Ellison cracked three satisfying boundaries in a quickfire 14 but was caught behind to leave the scoreboard reading a bizarre 73-5 off 11.

Ellison’s dismissal heralded the end of the initial frenetic phase of Bristol’s innings and ushered in a more cautious period as, profiting from a let-off at slip when on 7, Sillence, along with Hardwick, set about rebuilding the innings. This pair added 21 in the next six overs, before Sillence moved up several gears and took three consecutive fours off Basil Akram’s second over. There were more boundaries to follow, Sillence threading the ball through the infield like an expert embroiderer, and scoring two sixes off free-hits, one of which presented a serious hazard to aviation traffic. The next six overs yielded 72 runs, the partnership progressed to 96 off 82 balls, and Bristol looked on course for the 300-plus total that this tiny ground surely demanded.

But Sillence was stumped off a wide for a 48-ball 61, and two overs later Hardwick holed out at deep mid-wicket. 169-5 had become 174-7, with fewer than half the available overs having elapsed. The mood of the innings changed again as the lower order tried desperately to nudge the total upwards towards something defendable. They met with limited success. Lakhani hit a return catch when trying to force the pace after surviving 25 balls for his seven. Pollard contributed one joyous boundary, and Jones, assisted by two wides, took an unlikely 19 off an over from the returning Higgins. But these were the last runs Bristol scored, and they finished on 206, with 16.5 overs of their allocation unused.

Potterne went about their innings very differently to Bristol, playing with circumspection against the pace and bounce of Bristol’s openers. The comparative scores after nine overs tell a story: Bristol 57-4, Potterne 30-0. Bristol had opportunities in the early overs but couldn’t cling on to some difficult chances. Neither were any of their appeals, including a couple of very confident ones – answered in the affirmative. It wasn’t until Hardwick slipped one through the defences of Cullen that the opening partnership was broken, with the score on 78. Wijerathne joined De Souza and although the Bristol bowlers kept the scoring in check – until the first over of Jones’s second spell, the 24th of the innings, yielded 13, Potterne were barely up with the required rate – wickets proved elusive. They didn’t get another until the score was 138, and the second ball of Probert’s new spell trapped the Sri Lankan LBW. Two more followed in two balls soon afterwards when the same bowler had De Souza well caught by Ellison at point for a patient 61, and the home captain Clark bowled offering no shot. A couple more wickets at this point, with Potterne still 47 short of their target, would have made for a tense finish, but they were not forthcoming. Young and Akram successfully negotiated the remainder of Probert’s threatening spell; finishing with 3 for 38, he was the pick of the bowlers. Then, with Young taking a particular liking to the unfortunate Fellowes’ left-arm spin, the end came swiftly with 12.2 overs to spare.

Bristol will rue some intemperate batting, some poor fortune, and some flawed catching, and hope for an improved performance against Downend at home next Saturday.