Woodbourne won the toss and decided to field.
After the Selly Oak Hospital game's woeful start hopes were high that we would have a far more solid opening partnership. Unfortunately our hopes were dashed when Rob lost one of his stumps on the last ball of the first over with the score on 1. Nick Small was next, looking the part with several graceful nonscoring shots before he troubled the scorer, and eventually succumbed to some tight bowling for 5. Haroon came in at four, desperate to make amends for his duck the week before only to be given lbw by Simon for a second successive duck (going for the hattrick next week!) and Greig was run out for 5 as he was just getting going leaving the score at 40 for 4 off 12 overs and deep in the middle of collapse territory.
Jon Wilkie had been keeping the innings together with some lovely stokes but when Tony came in to bat he departed as quickly as he could for a top score of 28 runs. Tony and Rajesh put on about 25 together in relatively quick fashion before Tony (16) hit the ball onto his own wickets. Rajesh (12) was bowled soon after and Geoff and Fahad joined Haroon's fan club with ducks of their own whilst Andy was run out for 1. It was agreed by all that the miserly total of 68 all out was going to be quite difficult to defend!
Woodbourne offered stubborn resistance with the bat as Mermaids battled to stay in the match. Quick wickets were needed but didn't materialise even though the bowling was tight. Andy finally made the breakthrough in the 11th over, with the third ball of an impressive spell, but Woodbourne were already on 44. Signs of a collapse came too late when Woodbourne went from 61 for 1 to 67 for 4 in a ten ball period with Andy and Rajesh picking up wickets but defeat was only moments away. A four was hit to end our misery with 4 overs to spare. Andy finished with figures of 2 for 9 from 3.4 overs with Greig (2 overs 0 for 7), Geoff (3 overs 0 for 8) and Rajesh (2 overs 1 for 7) also bowling very well.
The 7 match winning streak had come to an end!
