Murphy’s four wicket haul can’t lead Sandridge to victory

SHL Division 6

Sandridge 176 Reed II 177-7

Reed II won by three wickets

AFTER an opening day victory Sandridge went into their game against Reed II with some justifiable confidence.

Winning the toss and batting first Adam Temple (20) enabled a positive start. Ian Merryfield (23) kept the momentum going but the loss of three quick wickets meant that Lennie Peters (38) and Rob Corran (22) had to dig in. Their partnership of 55 laid the foundations for some sensible late batting from Rick Panting and John Murphy and an all out score of 176 was a reasonable return.

Reed’s reply did not start well as early wickets for Murphy and Peters exposed the middle order. A couple of difficult chances went down and this proved costly as Reed were able to maintain a good run rate and ultimately got home with three wickets to spare.

Peters bowled with typical guile for his 2-40 and John Murphy picked up four wicket including a spell that saw him bowling for a hat-trick three times in this innings. He took two wickets in his last two deliveries last weekend and twice took two wickets in consecutive balls in this innings.