Aveva Las Vegas

Jags 177-5 (Parrish 28*, Threadgold 27*, Phillips 26*, Horner 25*, Maqbool 2-38), beat Aveva 111-5 (Glass 25*, Maqbool 23*, Langley 22, Sharda 15, Benett 3-20) by 66 runs

MOTM - Tyler Bennett

Game two of the season was against familiar opposition in Aveva at the beautiful Downing College pitch. The Jags came equipped with 12 players this week which allowed debutant Fraser Christie an impressive 40 overs of keeping, donning the gloves for both sides!

Captain Parrish won the toss and did what anyone in their right mind would do on a May evening and opted to bat. The now familiar opening partnership of Parrish and Barker headed out to the middle to face the pick of the Aveva bowlers, Imran Maqbool. The Jags bagged a swift start with a breezy 28 from the skip inside 5 overs. This was abley supported by James with some nice shots and really positive running between the wickets, keeping as at 9 an over.

James sadly fell soon after getting bowled looking to go big on a straight one from the Aveva skipper. This brought Tobias to the crease who looked in good touch, timing the ball well but finding fielders. He was however out smarted by Aveva's very own grenadier who's straight but lofty bowling was just too straight and lofty for the big swing of the Langley bat, giving debutant Ed the difficult responsibility of giving him out LBW.

Mr Chirpy came into bat and played a very accomplished knock for the second week running. Phillips played some great shots on the way to 26 retired outscoring Dan who had been there for a few overs longer. Dan would argue he didn't have much of the strike but he did hit 9 singles...which is giving the strike up voluntarily really. Plod-along Threadgold eventually got the job done booking his 27 with just two boundaries but with Fardell missing this week someone had to be 'the anchor' I suppose. In truth he batted very nicely, playing some lovely shots through point off the back foot.

We were next treated to another debutant Morgan batting with James Horner in just his second game for the Jags. The first few shots from James suggested he was not used to facing this sorta filth but he eventually realised just stop thinking and 'clobber it' which brought him to 25 with a big six through the leg side. Morgan played with a fine sense of style and grace you don't often see on a Wednesday night on our circuit but sadly chipped one up for Fraser behind the stumps for 9. The highlight of the partnership though was surely James prodding the ball back to the bowler and promptly calling yes for a quick single. Fortunately Morgan had the sense to turn down this ludacris suggestion and we avoided a run call bad enough to be run out twice. 

In the last couple of overs Liam hit a few nice twos before getting bowled by a straight one by the returning Imran. Ed kicked his Jags batting career with a golden duck middling the ball straight to short cover who couldn't believe he had caught it and suddenly with the last ball of the innings we were facing a hatrick ball. Tyler had barely got his pads on and went out with no box, half his straps undone and the knowledge that he both had to 'smash it' but also not get out on a hatrick ball. He found a middle ground and carved it for a single to end the innings. It was a dominant batting performance and one of our highest scores - 177 for 5 from the 20.

We turned around quickly for the second innings to combat the dwindling light and kicked things off where we left them with Tyler centre of attention. He bowled beautifully to be honest and kicked things off with another early wicket clean bowled. He always threatens the stumps and is turning out to be a reliable wicket taker in this format. Ed debuted from the other end and evidently shouldn't have done whatever he did to Dan in the innings break as he let two routine stops past him for 4. Dan's sabotage aside though Ed found his length and bounced back with 2 wickets from his 3 over spell, including a rarely seen T20 maiden in his last.

Morgan and Venkat took to the stage and both bowled very tightly. Any hope Aveva had of chasing the total disappeared in this passage of play with both bowlers operating with good economy without finding a breakthrough. This proved to be the case for the rest of the innings with Liam and Phillips joining the party and also logging great economy rates without the Ws. Amazingly Phillips coming the closest with numerous catches landing just out of reach of fielders.

But if you want a job done right you bring on Tyler so back on he came for his last over and he bagged to wickets. The first a clean bowled of the batsman going well on 22 and then wrapping things up on the last ball forcing an aerial shot that was snaffled up by Morgan.

Overall a great Jags game - Nice opposition, convincing win and contributions made by everyone. Close call for MOTM between Tyler and Phillips but 3 wickets midweek from Tyler clinches it.