Dorking Make Use of the Purley Road

The 2s made the trip to Purley looking to avenge memories of a painful defeat in the corresponding fixture last season. Into the side came Coxy, Jon Gale, DY from the weeks previous 11.

Purley is renowned for being a decent place to bat and we were given first use of it. Coxy and the skipper (Matt H) were quickly into their rhythm punishing anything short with the opening bowling pair having little answers. The opening stand made it look easy targetting the short boundary towards the tennis courts and the stand was worth 97 before Matt tried one to many and Cooper struck as he departed for 42. Tommy joined Coxy with a great platform and with the tricky Ghalib into the fray it was a case of picking the runs off where possible. Coxy got to an elegant 50 but didn't go on for a big one as the sweep shot to Ghalib proved his downfall. The stage was well set for Wingy to play his natural game and he did that by plundering Cooper through extra cover on numerous occasions. The pair safely negotiated us to drinks were at 25 overs a healthy 145-2 was set. The stand of 46 was broken a few overs after this as Wingy was deceived by Khan for 32. Tommy continued in industrious fashion by encouraging us to test the home side in the field. We lost a couple of quick wickets to see us pegged back to 168-5, but with wickets in hand key and 10 or so overs remaining Quinny and Tommy looked to move the innings up a gear. With the score on 182 Tommy’s watchful innings of 34 came to an end but this brought Max to the crease for him and Quinny to put on another important partnership. They ran terrifically and Quinn took a liking to the otherwise economical Ali through cover. The last pairs knock worth 41 and competitive target was posted of 223.

Buoyed by his batting cameo Max came out with ball and caused the Purley openers trouble from the off, however, it was opening partner Travis who made the first breakthrough trapping Cooper in front. 18-1. Max then followed the next over as Trev took a super catch at gully. Max then preceded to bowl a match winning spell as Thornton was cleaned up leaving it, Short another victim leg before and Alam was dismissed courtesy of a ripper of a catch from Gale at slip. Purley in a pickle at 30-5 wit Ridler bagging four. Purley still had the useful Rehman at the crease and he set to stabilise their innings alongside Gaitskell. With Quinny and DY on runs were at a premium though and they were creating opportunities. Quinn’s patience finally paid off as he broke the 57 run stand as Rehman tried one too many and found the grateful hands of Wingy. Ghalib joined the party to only play one way and thrashed a quick 20 before being yorked by Trev. 118-7. Similar to the previous week Travis was recalled to the attack to mop up the tail and he duly obliged claiming two quick scalps. 135-9. The Purley skipper Ali was determined not to go down without a fight and made us work for our win with an unbeaten 45 along with the number 11. Though victory was always comfortable we were unable to claim the 10th wicket but did claim a 40 run victory to keep our 100% start in tact.

A tough fixture this weekend for the 2s as Camberley who also have a 100% start come to town.