EL1 champions Griffins start with a win
DESPITE an inauspicious start, Griffins begin their Odey Wealth Evening League title defence on a winning note on Tuesday.
The champions lost two wickets in the opening over of the night against Irregulars at the KGV as James Underwood removed Damian Wallen and Matt Philp in successive deliveries, but the Le Tissier brothers, Luke and Glenn, steadied the ship to lay the platform for their eventual victory.
Island all-rounder Luke carried forward the momentum of his Weekend Championship century to top score for his side once again, making 36 from 31 balls with six boundaries before he fell to Anosh Thampi’s first ball in the 10th over.
By that stage, the Le Tissiers had put on 60 for the third wicket.
The battle between bat and ball was relatively even for the rest of the innings, with young Charlie Forshaw impressing for Irregulars as he went for just four runs an over having conceded just six from his first three.
All of the Griffins middle order chipped in with useful contributions without anyone going on to a substantial score with Glenn Le Tissier’s 27 the next best to his brother before he, too, fell to Thampi, while Tom Kirk, Jordon Martel and Dane Mullen helping push their side up to 143 from their 20 overs.
Underwood returned at the death to replicate his first-over feat by taking two more wickets in his last over and Stuart Le Prevost, who was standing in as captain in the absence of the injured Martin-Dale Bradley, demonstrated that he still possesses a safe pair of hands with three catches, the pick of which was his last, low to his left at mid-wicket off a well-timed Martel pull shot.
Le Prevost then opened up the reply but was watching from the non-striker’s end as Luke Bichard dismissed both Gashirai Masvikeni and Ben Wentzel in his opening over – the former caught by Rob Thomson at short third-man off the shoulder of the bat and the latter pouched by Wallen at the third attempt at short fine-leg.
What had initially appeared a very achievable run chase had quickly become a tall order.
Angus Hunter joined Le Prevost in a six-over rebuild, but Griffins skipper Kirk wisely opted to bowl Bichard through and in his final over he skittled the former Island captain for 23 to leave Irregulars with a mountain to climb.
The required rate kept climbing as the spinners turned the screw in the middle overs, picking up three wickets between them, before Dane Mullen returned to claim three of his own at the death.
Charles Vorster struck some late boundaries on his way to an unbeaten 44 from just 27 balls, but Irregulars ended up 20 runs short of their opponents.
In this week's other two matches, Cobo successfully chased Optimists' total of 155 for a six-wicket win on the opening night while Indies defeated Wanderers-Rovers by eight wickets with more than five overs to spare on Wednesday chasing 158.
