After a morning of rain showers and on a pitch with no covers, Barrow Gurney wanted to bowl first on a damp wicket at Netham Park. Unfortunately they lost the toss and were subsequently put into bat on a tricky-looking wicket.
Barrow were missing a few batsmen from their usual line up, so Alwis was elected to open with Ben Skuse. They saw off the opening bowlers well and managed to score at a good rate before Skuse was clean bowled by Bristol Pakistanis’ first change bowler Bugadi (who was by far the quickest bowler Barrow have faced all year). More about him to follow. That brought captain Mark Brown into bat with Alwis and they managed to get to drinks scoring at a respectable rate thanks to some good running between the wickets and pressuring the fielders. Alwis batted very well and delivered some lusty blows to bring up his maiden 50 for the club.
Soon after drinks, with the score on 115-1, Brown fell for 30 which was the start of what can only be described as a truly memorable passage of play. Jordan Allen came in at 4 and played some nice looking shots before the hard running Alwis got run out. Sameera came in and got a first baller. In the next over Jordan was undone by a slower ball and now Barrow were really looking a little shaky and, at 126-5 and they needed a bit of stability. Will Kerswell and Premil were at the crease and looked comfortable before Premil tried to run a suicidal three and was run out. Bristol Pakistanis saw a chance to rattle through Barrow so brought back Bugadi.
The fast bowler showed what can be done by bowling full and straight. He bowled Luke Glazzar during a wicket maiden. The next over he bowled, he took Barrow’s final three wickets in the space of three balls! Kerswell bowled, Matt Owen bowled and Oscar Livesey facing the hat trick ball got done LBW. He finished with 5-19 and was the difference between the teams. Barrow couldn’t handle his accuracy or pace.
After tea Matt Owen had a loud shout for a caught behind, and the bowlers plugged away to no avail as Barrow put down about three catches.
A change of bowling from each end saw Luke and Sami pick up a few wickets between them, all batsmen going for a big swipe and Alwis taking three of the catches. Bristol Pakistanis still needed around 60 runs and Barrow needed 5 wickets, but some steady batting from their middle order saw them home, even after Premil had one batsman caught behind near the end. Bristol Pakistanis won by 4 wickets which was a fair result after Barrow’s innings.