Saturday 30th April 2005
Tonbridge lost by 1 wicket
Tonbridge Innings
| Howeson | Bowled | Charar | 6 | |||||
| Durell | LBW | Southern | 13 | |||||
| Shales | Ct. Kafle | Precious | 9 | O | M | R | W | |
| Makepeace | Ct. Ranatunga | Precious | 2 | Brathwaite | 14 | 2 | 35 | 0 |
| Howick | LBW | Southern | 8 | Charar | 12 | 2 | 26 | 1 |
| Middleton | Ct. Charar | Sivakumeran | 26 | Precious | 10 | 1 | 21 | 3 |
| Hammond | LBW | Sivakumeran | 11 | Southern | 7 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
| McDonald | Ct. Ranatunga | Sivakumeran | 5 | Sivakumeran | 8.2 | 1 | 23 | 4 |
| Buggé | Ct. & Bowled | Sivakumeran | 14 | |||||
| Pierce | Bowled | Precious | 11 | |||||
| Botting | NOT | OUT | 0 | |||||
| Extras | 20 | |||||||
| 125 all out (51.2 Overs) |
Dulwich Innings
| Ranatunga | Bowled | Howick | 2 | |||||
| Kafle | Ct. Durell | Hammond | 1 | |||||
| Roy | Ct. Shales | Botting | 15 | O | M | R | W | |
| Charar | Ct. Shales | Howick | 12 | Howick | 13 | 2 | 47 | 6 |
| Sivakumeran | Ct. Makepeace | Howeson | 11 | Hammond | 10.3 | 2 | 29 | 1 |
| Brathwaite | Bowled | Howick | 31 | Botting | 6 | 0 | 17 | 1 |
| Diamond | Ct. Bugge | Howick | 9 | Howeson | 9 | 3 | 17 | 1 |
| Mahgani | NOT | OUT | 23 | Middleton | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| Precious | Bowled | Howick | 0 | |||||
| Bucitnell | Ct. Shales | Howick | 6 | |||||
| Southern | NOT | OUT | 0 | |||||
| Extras | 16 | |||||||
| 126 for 9 (39.3 Overs) |
Tonbridge lost the toss and were put in on a slightly damp, green but firm wicket. The conditions were overcast but forecast to brighten up later - good bowling conditions. Tonbridge openers Howeson and Durell batted very well against some excellent fast bowling until we lost our first wicket on 15 in the 10th over. Some tidy seam bowling from Dulwich, supported by good fielding resulted in Tonbridge losing a series of quick wickets to slump to 45 for 5. Our sixth wicket partnership of Hammond and Middleton (who top scored with 26) steadied the innings and took the total to 87 just after lunch. The remainder of the lower order batted well to get the score to 125 before we lost our final wicket.
Tonbridge needed to get quick wickets to put pressure on the Dulwich run chase. Howick and Hammond did exactly that, picking up 3 quick wickets (24 for 3). Dulwich then managed to establish a slight upper hand with a partnership that took them into tea at 41-3. However, after tea the advantage swung back Tonbridge's way as a couple of quick wickets fell to the seam bowling of Howeson and Botting (1 wicket each). However Dulwich's sixth wicket partnership yielded 30 runs and on 95-5 were taking the game away from the XI. Tonbridge needed to do something and their captain delivered by taking two wickets in two balls to wrestle back the advantage. After two more wickets to Howick, one brilliantly caught by Buggé, Dulwich had lost their ninth wicket on 112. This left the final pair needing to score 14 runs for victory. Unfortunately some good clean hitting by their No. 8 helped Dulwich get these vital runs.
It was disappointing that we didn't quite manage to win this match. However, Tonbridge should be proud of the way they fought especially after we lost early wickets at the start of the day and at 45 for 5 with all our senior batsmen out, we came back well to almost do it. The bowling and fielding were excellent and in particular Howick displayed great skills as a captain to set attacking yet run saving fields to keep the pressure on Dulwich throughout the run chase.