2's saved by the rain

Whilst the first team were feeling aggrieved to be rained off, Goresbrook’s second string looked on the way to defeat at Bentley’s Coxtie Green ground as another anaemic batting performance yielded only 138 runs, the hosts bowling Brook out in the 45th over.

The Goresbrook innings started slowly as Aaron Scott and Charlie Thompson bedded in against some accurate bowling and it then proceeded farcically, as after all that hard work Aaron Scott was run out after an 8 ball 38 with the score at 16-1 in the 13th over. From thereon it barely improved, as after a patient 23 from opener Charlie Thompson, wickets tumbled at regular intervals, skipper Ramduth was bowled, Thompson following immediately by the same method of dismissal and Adi Kumar was also run out, as on a difficult pitch, the Brook batsmen decided to fluctuate between stonewall defence and suicidal running.

Only 29 from Afzal Hussain and a fighting 28* from number 10 Daryl Forward detained the hosts for long as Goresbrook struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking over, O'Neill McDowell hit a dogged 12 before being the third run out victim of the innings and neither experience nor youth could make an impression as Lawrence Walsh succumbed for a golden duck and Danny Gillham jnr was another to be bowled for just a handful of runs.

With 139 to win Bentley’s reply looked well on track at 92-3 in the 30th over when the heavens opened, O’Neill McDowell taking 2 wickets for 30 and the skipper wheedling out the other, but with opener Hardy unbeaten on 41, it was the hosts who were rueing the ill-timed deluge.

Brook move on to a game at bottom side Rayleigh Fairview looking for a morale boosting win after a few weeks of distinctly average cricket.