Neyland warm up for Welsh finals in style (From Western Telegraph)

Neyland warm up for Welsh finals in style

11:00am Saturday 26th January 2013 in Sport

Neylandagain showed why they are Pembrokeshire’s indoor cricket kings as they started the new campaign with a bang by easily beating Haverfordwest and Cresselly at The Meads.

In their opening encounter they bowled out a fairly experienced Haverfordwest team for 52 and then took just 4.5 overs to reach their target without losing a wicket.

They then restricted learners Cresselly to 54 for 2 and although they did lose one wicket achieved their target again in only 4.5 of their allotted ten overs.

It nicely sets up Neyland for a much greater challenge next Sunday as they travel to take on UWIC and Margam in the Welsh Indoor Finals at Morriston.

In the other match, Haverfordwest easily accounted for Cresselly by a huge margin of 70 runs.

Match one:

Haverfordwest (52 all out) lost to Neyland (58 for 0)

Haverfordwest were soon in trouble as the new ball swung a great deal and Neyland bowled and fielded really well.

Anton John, in for the unavailable Patrick Hannon, gave them a boost with a superb one-handed diving catch to get rid of The Town’s danger man Simon Holliday. Although there was a good innings from Ben Field (22) the rest of the Haverfordwest side struggled as Paul Murray and Gregg Miller claimed run outs, with Gregg Miller also grabbing 2 for 8 as reward for his pinpoint bowling.

Murray and Gregg Miller then showed The Town batsmen how to run between the wickets as they took lots of threes alongside two fours and a six by Murray (27 not out) and Miller, who struck two boundaries as Neyland strolled to victory.

Haverfordwest batting:

Richard James ct Paul Murray b Sean Hannon 8

Simon Holliday ct Anton John b Andrew Miller 13

Ben Field ct Paul Murray b Gregg Miller 22

Jonathan Strawbridge run out 1

Nitin Mathias run out 1 Josh Hicks b Gregg Miller 0

Extras 7

Total (all out) 52

Neyland bowling: Gregg Miller 2-8; Nick Koomen 0-5; Sean Hannon 1-7; Andrew Miller 1-11; Anton John 0-18

Neyland batting:

Paul Murray not out 27

Gregg Miller not out 23

Extras 8 Total (0 wickets) 58

Haverfordwest bowling: Josh Hicks 0-10, Jonathan Strawbridge 0-13; Nitin Mathias 0-8; Simon Holliday 0-7; Ben Field 0-17

Match two:

Haverfordwest (159 for 3) beat Cresselly (89 for 2)

Simon Holliday led The Town to a huge total of 159 for 2 as he rattled up 75 not out, with useful support from Nitin Mathias (retired on 25) and Jonathan Strawbridge (a hard-hitting 22 not out).

Holliday rasped the last three deliveries for six to go with three more maximums and there was excellent running between the wickets from Mathias and Strawbridge as Cresselly paid the price for having only five players.

Cresselly were always going to struggle against such a massive total but Nick Davies reached 25 before retiring , including a six, while Harry Thomas grafted his way to 19 not out. Their total included 26 extras as The Town bowlers were guilty of wides aplenty, one over from Strawbridge consisting of 14 deliveries. But Cresselly were always well behind the clock and Haverfordwest claimed their first win of the new season.

Haverfordwest batting:

Simon Holliday not out 75

Richard James run out 8

Nitin Mathias not out 25

Ben Field ct Nick Davies b Sion Jenkins 5

Josh Hicks ct Harry Thomas b Luke Cole 0

Jonathan Strawbridge not out 22

Extras 24

Total (3 wickets) 159

Cresselly bowling: Luke Cole 1-22; Nick Davies 0-44; Harry Thomas 0-28; Jamie Phillips 0-30; Sion Jenkins 1-35

Cresselly batting:

Nick Davies retired 25 Harry Thomas not out 19

Jamie Phillips run out 12

Luke Cole not out 7

Extras 26

Total (2 wickets) 89

Haverfordwest bowling: Josh Hicks 0-11; Simon Holliday 0-11; Jonathan Strawbridge 0-21; Nitin Mathias 0-10; Ben Field 0- 0- 16

Match three:

Cresselly (52 for 2) lost to Neyland (54 for 1)

Cresselly elected to bat in this game but again found it hard to score against a superbly drilled Neyland fielding unit.

Harry Thomas managed 13 not out alongside Sion Jenkins (14) and Nick Davies (14 not out) and they had to settle for a less than challenging 54 for 2 as Andrew Miller and Sean Hannon conceded only six runs apiece from their combined four overs.

Andrew Miller and Nick Koomen were quickly into their stride as Neyland responded, with Miller eventually retiring on 25 (five threes and two fours) after Koomen (14) was well caught by Nick Davies off Luke Cole’s bowling.

Neyland’s new skipper Sean Hannon finished things off with 11 not out as Neyland finished in style – but they know they will face a far greater challenge in Morriston this weekend.

Cresselly batting:

Harry Thomas not out 13

Luke Cole ct Nick Koomen b Andrew Miller 1

Sion Jenkins run out 14

Nick Davies not out 14

Extras 10

Total (2 wickets) 52

Neyland bowling: Anton John 0-13; Andrew Miller 1-6; Gregg Miller 0- 15; Nick Koomen 0-6; Sean Hannon 0-11

Neyland batting:

Andrew Miller retired 25

Nick Kooman ct Nick Davies b Luke Cole 14

Sean Hannon not out 11

Anton John not out 0 Extras 4

Total (1 wicket) 54

Cresselly bowling: Nick Davies 0-10; Harry Thomas 0-15; Luke Cole 1- 12; Jamie Phillips 0-7; Sion Jenkins 0-10 Venue: The Meads Leisure Centre, Milford Haven.

Umpire: Alan Hansen, assisted by John Sheppard.

Scorer: Kirsty Hughes.