CRICKET: Revesby edge closer to league title and promotion

Revesby travelled to Lincoln last Sunday to face one of their main rivals in the promotion race with a tough league game at Nettleham.
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First for sport

Credit to the Nettleham ground staff for getting the game on after some significant rain during the previous 24 hours.

Winning the toss, Revesby elected to field first and made an immediate breakthrough with S. May bowling J. Thornton in the opening over. This brought in R. Bridgens, who immediately set about taking the attack to the visitors with a range of aggressive and well hit boundaries that quickly brought up the 50 partnership for the hosts, at almost a run a ball.

R. Bridgens was caught low down, clipping off his legs to backward square leg by S. May off the bowling of J. Lewis for a fine and quick fire 34, and this key wicket brought palpable relief to the Revesby fielders.

Nettleham continued to score at around four runs per over and despite wickets falling at reasonably regular intervals, they posted a competitive total of 157 all out from 35.3 overs. Other notable contributions for the home side included S. Nicolson (30), T. Dalton (27) and D. Keeble (22). For Revesby, R. Knight and D. Hunt returned figures of 3-48 and 2-13 respectively.

After tea, the visitors, like their hosts earlier, also lost an early wicket in the form of W. Laird (5) with the score on just 10. Fifty-two runs were then added for the second wicket before R. Jeffrey was well caught at slip by A. Sreedharan off the bowling of K. Baker for 23.

I. Roberts fell for a patient 39 and when C. Wall (5) quickly followed to provide a second wicket for A. Sreedharan, the game was very much in the balance with Revesby on 98-5. R. Knight and G. Lane added 48 crucial runs for the sixth wicket to take the visitors within reach of the target, before R. Knight was caught for a brisk 25.

G. Lane steadied the ship with an assured and invaluable 39 not out to see Revesby chase down the total, with the assistance of an unbeaten seven runs from D. Hunt, with just three balls remaining. S. McCardell, K. Baker and A. Sreedharan all took two wickets apiece for the home side as they very nearly succeeded in defending their first innings total.

The match was a great advert for cricket, played in excellent spirit and with some notable individual performances. It ebbed and flowed at various stages, especially in the final hour which made for tense viewing from the boundary edge.

The win leaves Revesby requiring just two points from their final three games to secure the league title, but the slightly unexpected defeat suffered by second placed Boston at home to Caythorpe still leaves Nettleham (who have played a game less than Boston) in a very strong position to also achieve promotion over the next couple of weeks.

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