Josh Arnold bats for f****** ages, Bram lose but do themselves proud

Sarisbury 2nd XI v Bramshaw 1st/2nd XI, Match Report by Bailey Loveless

On a cold Saturday, Tom Arnold had two tosses to call. The first was due to bad weather in the village knockout whoever won the toss between Bramshaw and Paultons progressed to the next round. TA called incorrectly and we exited the VKO without a ball being bowled.

However on a windy afternoon with a youthful side, Tom won the toss and we bowled first in a pre-season game against Sarisbury 2s. Sergio and Will opened up and bowled tidily with Serg picking up a wicket.

Amy Mills (on loan from Totton & Eling) bowled superbly to only go for 17 off her five overs with great control of her leg spin. However, some wayward bowling from others allowed the opposition to get to 150 for 1 off 28 overs. Bailey in particular bowling some absolute dross.

Serg and Will came back on to take some wickets at the end (3-31 and 2-32). Sarisbury got to 240-7 off their 40 with a few batters retiring on 50.

After tea, Charlie and Josh opened up but Charlie fell early. This brought Cam to the crease and he and Josh batted for 15 overs without progressing the scoreboard much but both looked solid. Cam fell for a hard-fought 5. Ollie looked in good shape before he edged behind.

This brought Tom to the wicket to bat with his younger brother. Tom made the wicket look easy and was pulling 6s for fun, he soon overtook Josh in the scoring. Josh eventually retired for 21 off 23 overs due to a mix of fatigue, crowd boredom and his brother telling him to get off the pitch. Tom fluently made 50 before he retired. A few quick wickets fell before Bailey hit a stunning four through mid-wicket. Bramshaw ended up 143 all out losing by 97.

See the full scorecard here – https://bramshaw.play-cricket.com/website/results/6098479

Despite the result, our fielding efforts were superb but the less said about Josh’s innings the better.

A big thanks to Sarisbury for getting the game on and being great hosts. We wish them all the best for the forthcoming season.