A strong Botany Bay batting machine turned up at Lincoln Road which would have been bad enough under normal circumstances, but with a brilliantly flat road to bat on it became 10 times worse for the home side.
The Bay won the toss and before the coin had even settled to a still position they elected to bat first.
The opening attack of Paul Sindrey and Steve Shewring both put their all into making the breakthrough but there was hardly a squeak of a wicket until 100 runs were on the board.
Stephen Underwood and Slaps put the brakes on somewhat, but the wickets just didn’t materialise in a batting heaven.
The breakthrough eventually came from Rosaneri’s talisman with his very first ball. But we cannot over praise the delivery as it hit the batsman’s stumps on the second bounce. Adam went on to take two more wickets and raise Rosaneri spirits. Slaps eventually got his reward for a great spell.
Stephen Underwood was the pick though and amazingly recorded 3 maidens in a super 9 over stint.
Rosaneri needed a daunting 255 for victory, and although this was a top batting track this also would also have been the teams best total by an additional 23 runs.
The vibe was positive from the start, and although wickets were falling the run rate required never got that far out of control.
Mr Bell set a good tone and batted with a real positive edge for an excellent 19. Batsmen came and went with a few playing themselves in only to get themselves out. Ben and Andy Underwood being particularly guilty of this.
Adam Jones amazingly ran himself out, and Stephen Underwood unluckily went to one of the best catches ever seen at Lincoln Road.
That left Jim and Slaps to grind on towards the massive total. They both took the attack to the bowlers and added a club record 84 for the 8th wicket. Jim going on to make his 2nd 50 for the club.
Jim eventually holed out and the tail caved in very quickly to leave Rosaneri 66 runs short.
Some of our batsmen will be disappointed that they missed out on such a delightful track, and maybe we could have got a lot closer if one other player had of really got going.
The team effort was excellent and we can be proud of the fact that we made a 1st/2nd XI work hard to see us off, although the final result was never really in doubt.