Game 11: 1st XI vs Downend 1st XI, Away

Downend 1st XI v Bristol 1st XI, WEPL Premier 1, 15 July 2017
Bristol 123 (28.5 overs), V Lakhani 30no, P Jackson 4-21, O Reynolds-Pringle 4-43
Downend 127-3 (24.1 overs), N Roberts 51no, W Rudge 2-29
Bristol slid back down to sixth in a volatile league table after a forgettable performance at Downend. Winning the toss and electing to bat, Bristol lost both openers within the first three overs, James Bracey clipping a six over mid-wicket before coming off second best in a staring competition with umpire Driver who gave him out LBW, and Fin Trenouth meeting a similar fate at the other end. After these early set-backs, Will Tavare and Louie Shaw took the score to 54 for 2 in the 11th over and were starting to build a partnership. But a wicket fell in each of the next five overs, and two in the over after that as Bristol subsided to 60 for 9, with two more LBWs, three caught-behinds and one catch at first slip. Partial redemption came from the unlikely quarter of a last-wicket partnership between Vir Lakhani and Dan Jones, who put on more runs (63) than the rest of the batsmen had managed between them. Initially benefitting from the attacking fields that resulted from the preceding collapse, both batsmen later played some fine strokes, Lakhani driving classically straight and through the covers, Jones playing more flamboyantly to similar areas. The pair shared ten of Bristol’s meagre total of 18 boundaries, and between them plundered 17 from Gloucestershire pro Craig Miles’ last over.
The third highest scorer in Bristol’s innings was extras, including an unusually high total of eleven no-balls, for which Reynolds-Pringle was the main culprit. Tavare hit the free hit that resulted from the first of these for six, but Bristol only scored a four and two singles off the other ten free hits. Even if they had reaped full value from all of these, however, their total would have been well below par for the small Downend ground.
Bristol were perhaps in the game briefly when they had reduced Downend to 53 for 2 through two catches by Bracey off Will Rudge, the second a particularly fine one down the leg-side to dismiss Grieshaber. Roberts and Lezar started uncertainly and another wicket at this point might have given Bristol a chink of hope. But they failed to make any further inroads until just before tea when Jones bowled Lezar.
Downend knocked off the 43 remaining runs they needed after tea in just 8 overs for no further loss. They even managed to gain a batting point as Reynolds-Pringle finished it with a six off Lakhani; Ralph Hardwick just failing to cling on to a catch on the mid-wicket boundary.