Opening day defeat a reality check for Smith and Eastbourne
Eastbourne chose to back first and were bowled all out for a lowly 148, a target that Ifield reached surpassed with ease, only losing four wickets in the process.
The club’s captain was disappointed with his sides all-round showing on the field. He said: “There was some very poor decision making with the bat and dropped some tough chances in the field. If those catches had stuck then it could have been a very different result.”
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Hide AdAlthough the performance on the pitch wasn’t what Smith wanted, he praised the debut performance of two of the club’s newcomers. “Charlie Hobden and our new overseas recruit Tom Martyn both had steady debuts which they can hopefully build on.”
With the team looking to improve on last season’s sixth place finish in the Sussex Division 2 League, he expects the team that played on Saturday to stay the same for the bulk of the season “The team isn’t decided yet but I wouldn’t have thought they’ll be too many changes. Jordy Watts, our regular wicket keeper is back from Uni though and will be playing.”
Despite getting the better of next week’s opponents Lindfield last season, Smith said the team are going into the game with caution, when they meet for the first time this season on Saturday.
“We probably edged Lindfield last year in the two games we had against them but they had a good win on Saturday so it would be very foolish to take them lightly.”