Datchet Cricket Club determined to protect unbeaten tag

By Shakila Barabhuiya • Published 28 Jun 2012 15:42 0 Comments

See also:

DATCHET captain Tim Alldis admits he cannot ask any more from his players after a winning draw with Eversley maintained their unbeaten start to the season.

Saturday's draw at the Wally Gage Memorial Ground cements Datchet's position at the top of Division 2a of the Thames Valley Cricket League.

And Alldis has challenged his side to hold on to their unbeaten tag for the rest of the summer.

Speaking to the Observer he said: "I can't ask any more of the guys at the moment.

"Our aim right from the beginning was to go unbeaten. We'll draw here and there but our mentality is to play to win not to draw."

Accurate opening spells from Eversley's Jack Sever and Richard Bucknall restricted the hosts to 30-2 early on.

But ex-Pakistani first class cricketer Pervez Aziz notched 55 and, despite the introduction of Simon Mugava (6-42), he built a solid partnership with keeper Adam Jones (77) for the fifth wicket enabling Datchet to declare on 239-8 from 50 overs.

A tight bowling spell by Tom Lambert and Adam Dick had Eversley's reply at 35-2 before a determined partnership between Shane Green (49) and Mugava (59) put them back in the hunt until the former was brilliantly run out by Alldis.

At 139-5 the visitors were again under pressure but another excellent lower order partnership between Simon Edwards (27) and vice-captain Gareth Cummings (26) ensured they held on for the draw on 201-7.

Eversley captain Phil Wise said: "I was proud of the team, our heads could've gone down but we stuck at it. The game was played in a good spirit and was very enjoyable."

Speaking about Saturday's opponents, he added: "Datchet are a very good team. They've always had a very strong batting line-up and now they've added to that.

"Aziz played really sensibly and showed a lot of experience."

Aziz has played 40 first class games and used to play for Slough while former Berkshire player Lambert came in at number eight, highlighting the strength of Datchet's batting.

Datchet captain Alldis was equally complimentary about the Hampshire-based side and sees them as the main threat to their promotion hopes this season.

Commenting on his side's performance he said: "We batted very well, especially Adam Jones. At one point we were 120-4 but he came in and scored 77 and scored them quickly as well, to a point where we could declare after 50 overs.

"He got the majority of the runs and really saved us."

Alldis continued: "We bowled tight and their overseas player Simon Mugava batted really slowly for his runs. He put on a solid partnership with Shane Green - nearly 100 - but slowly.

"While they were together we felt like we weren't going to have time to get the wickets, we started to run out of overs."

Datchet travel to Slough 2nds this weekend (1pm start) and Alldis is wary of the talent the division's basement boys possess.

He continued: "Slough are bottom at the moment but they won last week.

"They can have a lot of players called up from the first team so can become very strong.

"I'm not expecting it to be a rollover or a thrashing, we'll take every game as it comes."

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.

Follow @rdgchronicle