Bad day at the office for Mids (From Epsom Guardian)

Bad day at the office for Mids

11:15am Monday 11th June 2012 in Cricket

ESHER 243-9 G Butcher 105

TRINITY MID-WHITGIFTIAN 77 K Irshad 7-34

Esher won by 166 runs

Former Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian batsman Gary Butcher came back to haunt his old club with a brilliant century as Mids endured a disastrous afternoon against Esher on Saturday.

After losing the toss and being asked to bat the visitors made light of a damp wicket to pile up an impressive total against a depleted Mids attack which badly missed the absent Mark Roberts, Matt Winter and Ali Abbas.

Opening bowlers Thishan Wanigaratne and Mike Brugnoli both bowled tidy opening spells with Wanigaratne dismissing opener Hopkinson lbw cheaply.

However, seasoned professionals Sohail Ahmed and Gary Butcher ground out a partnership of 62 for the second wicket which gave Esher the ascendancy against a Mids side which looked uncharacteristically lacklustre in the field throughout.

Ahmed was eventually out for 32 as Jesse James took a good catch down the leg side but the TMW wicket keeper went from hero to villain when he spilled a straight forward catch to dismiss Butcher who at the time had scored just 37.

After reaching his half-century, Butcher proceeded to take the TMW attack apart, moving from 50 to 100 in just half an hour as Mids sent down far too many loose deliveries with spinner Raj Chatwal, in particular, unusually out of sorts.

Paul Harrison made 25 in a stand of 78 with Butcher who went on to score 105 before he was finally caught on the boundary by Richard Piggin as Esher went in search of quick runs to set up a declaration.

Wickets tumbled in the latter stages as the visitors threw caution to the wind enabling Jason Shield, Richard Nowell and Ben Ives each to claim two wickets in their first bowling spells in first XI cricket this season.

Esher eventually declared on a formidable 243-9, a score which far exceeded even their own expectations on a difficult pitch.

With in-form batsman Stewart Sales incapacitated by a dislocated finger sustained in the field, Mids were faced with a massive task, their hopes resting heavily on the performance of their top three batsmen.

Unfortunately, they failed to deliver with Richard Piggin the first to depart, losing his leg stump to Kurham Irshad who caused havoc throughout with his movement off the seam.

Nowell was caught out by the uneven bounce while Tommy Smith was unlucky to be given out lbw as Mids slid to 26-3.

Jason Shield threatened to spearhead a revival, making 30 before he was caught out at square leg but Mids showed precious little appetite for the fight thereafter.

James was clean bowled by Irshad who then trapped the injured Sales lbw first ball to complete a five-wicket haul.

In a dismissal which epitomised a day when everything went wrong for the TMW side, Mike Brugnoli was then ludicrously run out wandering out of his crease.

In contrast to many of his team-mates, Seb Miles batted gallantly for 37 before receiving a fine delivery from spinner Sohail Ahmed.

Wanigaratne then shouldered arms and was bowled by Irshad who completed the rout to finish with magnificent figures of 7 for 34 as Mids were dismissed for just 77, their lowest total since 2007.

Mids will welcome back a handful of players for Saturday’s visit to Farnham when they will look to put this performance swiftly behind them.