The 2’s travelled to Binfield on a windy and overcast but dry day to play their third match of the 2011 Division 4 campaign. Braywood lost the toss and Binfield elected to field first to try and make the most of what seemed bowler friendly conditions.

The dependable opening Braywood pairing of Russell and West got off to a solid start. Both batsmen hit a couple of fours each before Russell hit a sweet cut short straight into the hands of the point fielder to depart for 12. Hasnad Bhatti joined West at the crease and soon got into his attacking groove by hitting numerous fours all around the ground, both batsmen looked in good touch and put on a good stand of 70 before Bhatti was caught for 37, leaving Braywood 92-2. Phillips then joined West and the bowlers started to get on top as the scoring rate slowed down, after scratching around for a while Phillips was caught for 11 quickly followed back to the pavilion by both McDermott and Budd, leaving the score 168 for 5. The arrival of Zee Bhatti; however, saw Braywood back on the attack as he hit out, and ably supported by the dependable West the scoreboard started to tick over quickly again. Eventually Zee Bhatti was caught at almost the innings end and Braywood ended up on 227 for 6, a decent total with opener Stuart West carrying his bat for an excellent 74 not out.

After tea, a fired up Braywood came out looking to make it two wins on the bounce. However, stubborn and resilient batting from Binfield thwarted them each time it looked like victory was in sight. More fiery bowling from both Bhatti’s saw Zee pick up two wickets and Hasnad one. Carter’s accuracy and swing saw him bowl 15 Overs on the trot and pick up another 3 wickets to keep up a decent start to the season. McDermott also got involved and spun himself a wicket with Hasnad Bhatti taking a good low catch. It soon became apparent that batsman Canty was just as hard to dislodge for Braywood as West had been for Binfield earlier in the day, as he made a slow but solid 64. Despite Oswald rotating his bowlers a draw was all a young Binfield side looked for and that’s exactly what they got.

A slightly disappointing draw for the mighty2’s who probably felt they should have picked up the victory here. However that’s 3 matches unbeaten, as they move on to play Coleshill next week.