Monday May 18, 2009

Sunday 3^rd May vs Iver Heath (Home)

Fulmer beat Iver Heath by 129 runs

Fulmer, buoyed by the previous day’s victory and fielding a strong line-up, arrived at St George’s field looking to make it two wins in a row. One trend that continued was losing the toss, but for a change Fulmer were asked to bat first. 

After 10 overs this looked a good decision from the fielding skipper as Fulmer struggled to 38-3, with Nick Box, Jules Gibbs and Danny Jackson all departing cheaply. However Del Randall, making his first appearance of the season, proved the old adage about class and form to be true by making a very creditable 24 runs.  

His dismissal brought together Mark Denness and Shyam Pushpanath, the latter fresh from a fifty the previous day. Put simply, this pairing put on a batting exhibition rarely seen at Fulmer in recent years with a magnificent 147-run partnership which yielded an outstanding 100 from Mark. Struggling with an Achilles injury later on, he was eventually run out, and was greeted with a standing ovation on his return to the pavilion.  

Shyam continued to push the score on and ended up with 79 himself, an aggregate of 129 runs for the weekend. Fulmer eventually finished on 250-6, again a total not often reached in these parts. 

Iver struggled to get going in reply, and found Dave Paddon in particular to be hard to play. Bowling uphill into a stiff breeze, Dave returned figures of 5-45, including a smart caught-and-bowled for the fifth wicket, having put one down off his first delivery.  

This spell was backed up by Shyam (2-26) and agile work in the field, with only the Iver No.3 (57 not out) offering any kind of resistance. Nick Box snuck one through the No.11 to finish proceedings off, and a resounding and famous victory was confirmed, Iver ending up on 121 all out.