Ystradgynlais v Dyffryn – South Wales Cricket Association – Division 5

In the first match of the campaign the 1st XI ground out a well deserved victory against the side from Bryncoch.

New captain Martin Griffiths started in excellent fashion by correctly calling the toss of the coin and invited the visitors to bat on a slow and slightly damp pitch at the Rec. The opening attack of Tom Jones and the evergreen figure of Martin Donnelly kept the scoring rate down, although Jones was guilty of dropping short too often on a pitch that was giving assistence and was on several occasions fortunate not to concede more runs.

The early breakthorugh came when opener Rob Stanton was bowled in the 7th over for only 2 with 9 runs on the board when he was playing a shot more suited to the end of July than early May when his attempted drive was beaten by Jones and was clean bowled.

The visitors continued to make slow progress and this prompted the introduction of spin as early as the 17th over when Emyr Laurence took the ball and was not afraid to give it some flight in the pursuit of further wickets. Youngster Chris Hickey who had looked relatively comfortable in the conditions found the temptation too much to resist and was bowled trying an outrageous heave to the leg side, leaving the visitors 29-2.

Ystrad did not make things easy for themselves in the field by putting down 5 catches, none of which could be considered difficult; the captain guilty himself of shelling 2 “dollies”. Fortunately these did not prove to be too costly.

Dyffryn after the loss of their second wicket played cautiously yet without further loss until the score had reached 54 when after the introduction of Luke Owen, recovering from a heavy night before (his excuse for dropping a chance – well he would have dropped it had he got without 2 yards of the ball) 3 quick wickets shared amongst the seamers fell leaving the visitors on 56-5. This brought the experienced campaigners Jon Day and Mark Matthews to the crease. They attempted to hit their way out of trouble and were quite successful in doing so with Matthews hitting Jones for 2 towering sixes in succession, taking the score to 109 before both were bowled in quick succession by Jones and Owen leaving Dyffryn struggling on 111-7 going into the last ten overs.

Ystrad pressure told with Owen bowling Luc Jones, son of Lyn and Laurence mopping up the tail with the final two wickets.

Dyffryn 130 all out (47.4 overs)

In reply Ystrad used veterans Kerry Williams and Eddie King as their opening partnership and this only lasted until the 4th over when Williams was caught & bowled by Jon Day attempting a shot to the leg side a little too early and gave a leading edge catch to his opponent.

This brought debutant Matthew Phillips to the crease and he was slightly nervous in the first few deliveries faced as would be expected and was grateful to get off the mark with a quick single.

His time at the crease came to end with the score on 29 when he gave a catch in the slip cordon also off Day and Ystrad were in need of consolidation to ensure their campaign got off to the winning start anticipated at the start of the day.

King was then joined by captain Griffiths and they both looked comfortable in the difficult conditions and took the score on to 77 before King managed to get himself caught inexplicably at mid-off from the bowling of Luc Jones for a well crafted 37.

A minor collapse then gave the visitors hope as the home side slipped to 98-6.

The situation was redeemed when Daniel Holsgrove came to the crease and he gave excellent support to the captain as they shared a match winning partnership of 33. This was not without controversy though as the away side were convinced they had run out Griffiths with only 15 runs needed but the vociferous appeal was turned down by standing umpire Adrian Lock.

The winning runs were scored by the Rat off Lyn Jones with 4 overs remaining to ensure a winning start for the new captain and confidence ahead of next week’s local derby against Ystalyfera.

Ystrad 131-6 (47.3 overs)

Ystrad win by 4 wkts. Ystrad 24 pts Dyffryn 6 pts.

Notable Performances

Bowling

Tom Jones 15 Overs 2 Maidens 3 Wickets for 47 Runs

Martin Donnelly 15 Overs 6 Maidens 1 Wicket for 14 runs

Emyr Laurence 6.4 overs 0 Maidens 3 Wickets for 24 runs

Luke Owen 11 Overs 1 Maiden 3 wickets for 36 runs

Batting

Eddie King                   37 (3 4’s)

Martin Griffiths             39 not out (3 4’s)

Dyffryn

Batting

Mark Matthew  29 (2 6’s / 1 4)

Jon Day           22 (2 4’s)

Bowling

Jon Day 12 -2-26-2

Mike Davies 11-4-17-0

Chris Hickey 5-0-19-2

Ystrad Team:

Martin Griffiths (Capt), Daniel Holsgrove (Wkt), Tom Jones (Vice-capt), Kerry Williams, Eddie King, Luke Owen, Matthew Phillips, Lee Morgan, Liam Delaney, Emyr Laurence, Martin Donnelly.