The Second Weekend of the Natwest Middlesex Second X1 League One saw TCC take on Finchley – a game the TCC needed to win after a disappointing opening weekend to their campaign. Skipper Bag unsurprisingly won the toss and elected to bat in overcast conditions on a used, green and damp deck. Winter and Pryde made a very patient start, taking the team to 90-0 after 20 overs.
Winter was dismissed for 41 off 85 balls in the 27th over allowing Osmond to come to the crease. The pair continued to build nicely, with momentum gathering from the 35th over. Some big and innovative shots from both batsman allowed the score to accelerate comfortably past the 200 mark.
Osmond was caught for a quickfire 35 while Pryde continued to exert his dominance to a masterful 119* off 130 balls and TCC ended on 220-3 off their 45, a defendable total but hard to not feel as if the side left 20-30 runs out on the field.
Unfortunately, Finchley’s reply began confidently with the visitors racing to 70-0 after just 12 overs courtesy of some poor bowling and some good clean hitting from the opener. Munday made the first breakthrough, trapping the Overseas LBW with a clever change of angle. This didn’t do much to change the momentum and TCC struggled to keep the visitors below the scoring rate. Another wicket for Munday and three quick wickets from J Smith threatened to give TCC an unlikely victory. In fact, had A Smith held onto a rego chance at slip and Finchley number 7 walked after hitting a catch to point, the game might have gone the other way, but neither prevailed and TCC lost by 3 wickets.