First Team Match Report
Maldon first eleven hosted old rivals Halstead in round 5 on Saturday. The terrible weather in the run up to the match saw water leak under the covers to make one end of the pitch damp. Thanks to the groundsman we were able to get the pitch playable and started on time.
Maldon were missing a few regular faces but despite this captain Chris Harris won the toss and elected to bat first. Harris himself opened the batting with young Max Bryant as they looked to continue their excellent start to the season. Alas, this wasn't to be as Bryant (0) played onto his stumps from a rising Morris delivery. This brought Maldon new boy Alec Baldwin to the crease and with Harris together they blunted the pacey Halstead attack. The partnership of 80 was broken when Baldwin was adjudged to be LBW for 48 scored at a run a ball. Harris fell soon after for a solid 32. This brought all rounders' Matt Wild and Ian Elliott together and they worked the ball around until Wild (8) was undone by a swinging delivery from Halstead captain Josh Wells. Wickets fell quickly after this and only Elliott (45) put up much resistance. The innings ended with Maldon all out for 167 from 43.5 overs. The Halstead bowlers performed well with Wells (2-35) and David Elsbury (1-23) particularly standing out.
Maldon felt they were 30 runs short of a good score and would need a big effort in the field to take anything from the game.
In the same vein as the Maldon innings, Halstead also lost an early wicket with the dangerous Douglas-Hughes going for 0. The other opener Chris Huntingdon started his innings with a flurry of boundaries from the hapless Riley. He was removed by Wild (2-24) who along with Baldwin exerted a period of pressure on the Halstead batsmen. With Wild finishing his excellent opening spell, Elliott came on to bowl. He bowled with good control and finished with figures of 2-15. At this point Halstead had fallen to 85-6 and it was down to Baldwin (4-25) who bowled with good pace and accuracy and leg spinner Michael Foster (2-0) to finish of the innings for 96 and claim a completely deserved 20 points for Maldon.