A day that grew increasingly misty aided the Bennington Blades who, upon winning the toss, chose to bat first and take advantage of the dry conditions. Opening batsmen Eric and Justin flew out of the gate, peppering Peter for 13 runs in the first over. The pair then put on runs at a goodly pace, running the score up to 34 for no wicket by the end of the fifth over. The sixth over saw Peter exact some revenge when he had the newcomer Justin trapped in front lbw. The hard-hitting Eric fell in the next over, hitting his own wicket in an attempt to hoick Kevin over fine leg for what would have been his fourth boundary of the day. Bennington captain Chris and Zak saw the Blades to the end of their ten overs with a combination of power (slogging) and speed (crazed running between the wickets) that accounted for 28 runs in the final three overs. Brian Lara took the brunt of the attack, his first ball of the eighth over still sits in the swamp to this day, as the lone six of the match put it where none would see it again...
If a challenge was to be made to the Blades' total of 69/4, Shaftsbury captain Kevin and opening batsman Brian needed to strike back, and strike back hard. But all hopes of recovery were dashed as Eric had Kevin caught at point first ball.
Things stayed dismal for the Flashers as an intermittent mist moved in, helping the ball to skid low and keep the scoring rate low. Chris took two wickets in three balls in the third over, and after a four by Brian in the fourth, Eric and Justin kept Shaftsbury from scoring off of the last 21 balls of the match. Bennington won by 44 runs. With his deadly bat and lethal bowling, Eric Kerns wins Man of the Match.
So after the first match, here's the standings:
TEAM W L D Points Runs
Bennington 1 0 0 2 69
Woodford 0 0 0 0 --
Pownal 0 0 0 0 --
Shaftsbury 0 1 0 0 25
Two points are awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw or no result. In case of a tie, runs scored will be the tiebreaker.
