Butler serves up a treat in Cobo victory
KGV groundsman Josh Butler knew that he had prepared a belter of a track on Saturday and Butler the batsman made sure he cashed in.
No player in the island looks better at the crease when in form than the Cobo captain and he made scoring a hundred look both easy and elegant as he guided his side to a comprehensive eight-wicket victory in the opening match of the Odey Wealth Weekend GCA Cup.
Had they been allowed to bat through their entire 50 overs, Butler would surely have been joined as a centurion by Ben Ferbrache, whose unbeaten run-a-ball 68 was chanceless like the skipper’s.
As it was, though, their unbroken third-wicket stand of 137 saw Cobo home with more than 12 overs to spare.
Chasing 224, Zak Damarell and Alex Bushell got the reply off to a brisk start as they capitalised on some inconsistent seam bowling and both openers will look back disappointed that they did not go on to big scores themselves.
Bushell had clattered a couple of boundaries before giving tame catching practice to Martin-Dale Bradley while Damarell, who was given a couple of lives as he began to lose concentration following a good start, smacked a Jeremy Frith full toss straight to Ant Stokes’ safe hands at mid-wicket.
After that, though, there were no more alarms for Cobo as Butler displayed his full repertoire of strokes including a couple of sweetly struck sixes in the same Charles Vorster over as he closed in on his ton.
He also hit 11 fours, the last of which – a leg glance – brought up his century.
The only time he looked remotely in trouble came when he pushed one ball into the covers, loudly called ‘yes’ for a single then stood motionless for a second or two before suddenly being reminded to run by his batting partner. Perhaps Butler was starting to admire his own batting as much as the rest of us.
Ferbrache, whose knock included seven boundaries, was at his most impressive in showing positive intent against Frith’s spin and getting full value for his shots on a quick outfield.
It was he who hit the winning runs that make Cobo firm favourites to reach to final of the competition once the three-team round-robin is completed.
More in Monday's Guernsey Press.
