Match Score Line:
Philadelphia Cricket Club: 116/9
Haverford College: 113/8
Philadelphia Cricket Club wins by three runs
HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College cricket team lost a nail-biter of a game to a seasoned Philadelphia Cricket side in its second outing the spring season. Philadelphia Cricket Club played with home advantage as the game took place at the Club grounds, featuring a newly designed all-grass pitch.
Haverford cricket came into the game the day after its season opening victory against Merion Club. Philadelphia Cricket Club won the toss and elected to bat first. Haverford's bowlers made it tough batting innings, though. Senior Ty Joplin and junior David White shared the new ball with an opening bowling partnership of six overs. Both bowled extremely tidy three over spells, conceding a total of just 20 runs between them. This opening partnership was capped off with White taking the game's first wicket, getting Philadelphia Cricket Club's opener brilliantly caught at mid-on by freshman Andrew Cornell.
Raghav Bali took the first change in this game and got immediate results by taking full advantage of a swinging ball. He took a wicket in his first over; the wicket was affected by a brilliant fielding effort by sophomore Miguel Wise who took a catch at short third man after Bali found the top edge of the batsman's bat. Philadelphia Cricket Club's batting order began to find some momentum at this point as the hosts hit multiple boundaries in consecutive overs.
However, senior captain Ty Joplin brought himself back on for a second spell and found immediate results. He took two wickets in a single over, bowling out one batsman before getting the next man to the crease out caught and bowled. Bali, White, and Joplin all found success against Philadelphia's lower order, and they were ably supported in the bowling effort by senior Ruben Aguilar and freshman Andrew Cornell. Tidy bowling and regular wickets restricted Philadelphia Cricket Club to a score of 116/8 at the end of the 25 over innings.
Haverford's batting effort got off to a blistering start, powered by freshman opening batsman Nathaniel Rolfe. Rolfe slammed 23 runs off just 22 balls, employing the pull shot to great effect to take four boundaries along the leg-side. Rolfe put on a nearly 30 run opening stand with fellow opener Andrew Cornell, who ably rotated the strike with Rolfe in his innings of six runs. Sharp fielding by Philadelphia cost Haverford dearly as the middle order wobbled in the face of a brilliant catch on the edge of the field and multiple direct hits on the stumps that ran out a few players.
Haverford's lower order rebuilt the innings though, anchored by freshman Charlie Lynn's 12 runs of 34 balls innings and sophomore Richard Phillips' nine runs off 26 balls innings. The duo consolidated and rebuilt the innings in the face of extremely accurate and tight bowling from Philadelphia's quick bowlers. The partnership was gaining significant momentum with Lynn getting four off a classical sweet shot that bisected the fielders at midwicket and mid-on.
However, this was brought to a halt when Lynn found himself caught out. With the pressure building, Senior Ruben Aguilar brought on near heroics as he inched Haverford closer and closer to the finish drive, finding a boundary off a pull shot in the process. Tight bowling and fielding, however, stopped Haverford just a few runs from the finish line.
Haverford next plays the British Officers Cricket Club on Saturday, April 23 at home.
