No Witty Headline This Week As 3s Get What They Deserved

On yet another hot Saturday, Seaford made the trip to William Parker College to play bottom of the table Kerala Strikers, hoping to keep their winning run going.

After hanging around for seemingly ages waiting for Kerala to arrive, eventually the toss was done and amazingly was won by Seaford for a change, and elected to bowl first. With a few changes to last weeks team forced by the usual "can't be bothered to play excuses" Seaford knew they needed a decent effort in the field as they didn't have the usual batting depth, although the team was still more than good enough to have come away with the win. How wrong we were!!

Steve Hearsey sent back the dangerous Sachin Jose first ball, uprooting the off peg, and Seaford's hopes were raised. Sadly that was about as good as it got, as most of Seaford's bowlers were way off their best. The new leg side wide line coming in extremely handy as time and time again the ball was delivered closer to that than the stumps. Credit has to be given to Gavin Wright behind the stumps who spent most of his afternoon taking diving stops down leg. Something I never thought I would actually say about the 3s this year, but out of the seven bowlers on display, all of which are decent bowlers, only Steve Hearsey (4-30) and Justin Squires (1-27) who sent his first 8 overs for 16 came off that pitch with any credit at all.

C.Thomas (46) and S.Thomas (42) had fun and picked off the bad balls, of which their were many. Kerala ended their innings on 164-6 after 40 overs. To put it into context, at 20 overs they were 41-2. Some of the rubbish that was thrown down today was truly awful, myself very much included. Players need to stand up and be counted and need to perform at the level we all know and hopefully they know they are capable of.

Although Seaford had allowed Kerala to get many more runs than we had should have done, the score was still achievable. Only 4 an over was required and even taking into account the missing Edmonds duo, there was still enough batting on show to win the game. An early wicket never helps, but Seaford recovered to 89-3 after 26 overs and looking like they would be able to take victory. Unfortunately last weeks batting heroes Justin Squires (28) and Billy Wootten (20) both fell in quick succession and with them the game went as well. Eight out of the eleven batsmen failed, and as the other three only got a top score of 28, you could argue that all eleven failed. Sadly that is nowhere near good enough, and will almost never win a game. As with the bowlers, the batsmen will need to look hard at themselves. E.Jose (3-21) and D Baby (3-14) took the bowling plaudits.

To sum up the game isn't easy, no disrespect to Kerala but they are bottom for a reason, but we made them look like they are top of the league. Seaford fell short on pretty much everything. The team selection wasn't the best, but maybe if some people actually make themselves available it would help. The captaincy was severely lacking, and for that I hold my hand up. The bowling was poor, the batting barely better. However, this is a team game, we win as a team, and when we lose, its also as a team. It doesn't matter how well or badly any one player has played, the result and the team is all important.....something that some at Club Seaford need to remember. Its not all about "me"

Author: Jon Milham

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