Mugboat ton gets the party bus moving!
Windsor travelled to newly promoted Tring hoping to erase the memories of the previous weeks debacle vs Finchamstead
Preparation for the game was less than ideal, Tom Hartridge had to pull out on the eve of the match with a torn hamstring and the bus that Windsor had hired for the journey was 30 minutes late. Windsor were greated by a delightful settings at Tring and upon winning the toss won elected to bat first on what looked like a very good track.
Madley and Weston opened up again and with 16 from the first 2 overs Windsor were off to a little flyer early on. The Tring bowlers then found much better lines and made life very difficult for the Windsor batters and they could only muster a further 20 runs of the next 12 overs. Weston was out caught behind for 22 in the 13th over and Madley followed him back to the pavilion shortly after with the score just shy of 50. Mark Huggins joined Nichols at the crease and when Tring changed their bowlers runs started to flow a little easier. Nichols was given 3 chances in one single over, all of them straight forward missed stumpings. Tring tried to make up for this by claiming a dropped catch when Huggins chipped one to cover, Nichols recited his version of the law to the umpires which drew an expletive laden response from the Tring skipper. Whilst Nichols was removed shortly after for a valuable 35, Huggins made Tring pay for their error in the filed as he blasted his way to 50. Lines came and went quickly before Malik joined Huggins at the crease at 146/4 in the 40th over. What followed was some of the most entertaining cricket played by Windsor batters in some time as the boundary was cleared no less than 10 times, one of Malik’s cleared the 2 storey pavilion as he brought up his 50 of just 35 balls, Huggins last six brought up a memorable and entertaining hundred of just 87 balls.
Windsor finished with 242/4 from their allotted 52 overs and carried all of the momentum into the tea break.
Tring started their innings with intent against the Windsor attack of Malik and Nichols and struck a number of balls to and over the boundary in the first 4 overs, however they tried this once too many times and popped a simple catch up to Madley at cover to give Nichols the initial breakthrough. Tring continued to score at the required rate until Mohindru was introduced in the 15 over, he then removed the Tring skipper with the score on 56 and Allen-Turner started to get the ball to move around all over the place. Allen-Turner claimed the next 2 Tring wickets by trapping them LBW as he and Mohindru ripped through the middle order to leave Tring reeling at 69/5. From this point there was only one winner as Windsor went for the kill by placing fielders all around the bat. Tring managed to salvage 2 batting points by reaching 147 as Mohindru finished with the stunning figures of 6/27!
This was a much improved all round display from the Windsor boys, the innings was structured very well, although aided somewhat by some poor Tring fielding. The Windsor seam bowling still needs a bit of work, especially those first few overs, as does the fielding but it was good to see the batting fire and more importantly board the party bus back to Windsor with 25 points in hand!
Match Highlights
Huggins 104*, Malik 50*, Nichols 35, Weston 22
Nichols-Huggins 3rd wkt partnership 83
Huggins-Malik 5th wkt partnership 96*
Mohindru 13.2/1/27/6, Allen-Turner 8/2/26/2
