What a finish. Like many of you I have just watched Jimmy and Monty snatch a draw we frankly didn't deserve. I do enjoy seeing Ponting looking so miserable, it makes me feel happy that The Convict Colony will go to work grumpy tomorrow having stayed up all night biting their nails and crying into their piss-weak lager.
We had a similar, gritty, final wicket partnership at the Field of Dreams yesterday. On a day when the weather was expected to save England's blushes in Cardiff and deny us all any meaningful cricket in Oxfordshire we took 25 points in the return fixture from the only side to have beaten us this year.
Invited to bat first by Oxford's, frankly slightly too cocky skipper we set off as the clouds scudded across. Jules started brightly, cutting particularly well on his way to 30. The caretaker had been promoted up the order with the hope that the extra responsibility would have the same effect as we have seen with Tee Kay. It sort of worked, a confident 37 was the reward before he felt he couldn't survive in the middle without the brotherly love of Connor. They were both out in consecutive balls and we were in trouble again at 100 for 6 in the 29th over. This was just the situation for Didcot's lower order specialist finisher. Pingu 'naughtie' Broughtie thrives in these conditions. Needless to say he contrived to fall out with a couple of Oxford's bowlers, no matter though. Adding 45 runs with Ross 'Deep Fat' Fryatt did part of the job; Ross batted sensibly, mixing defence with positive attacking shots. At 176 for 9 with 5 overs left we still needed more runs. Matt Tatford, debuting for the firsts had simple, clear instructions. DO NOT GET OUT! The lad can bat and defended like Monty and Jimmy. The last 5 overs yielded 37 runs and pushed us up to 213 for 9. A competitive score. Naughtie finished undefeated on 54, another fine innings for the team he loves; and useful for the average as well.
The clouds continued to scud across as we tucked into our Reggae, Reggae chicken and pavlova. The teas seem to be better than ever this season. Super.
Oxford openers started cautiously and got to 50 odd in a dozen overs. The pitch is a seam bowlers nightmare these last couple of weeks so we turned to Laurel and Hardy again. Hitchman is a name that is known by every opposition team we face, he has an uncanny knack of getting under everyone's skin. Maybe it is because they are jealous of the flowing locks and athletic build bestowed on him by a benevolent god. Anyhow, yesterday he was sledged by the non-striker. Good work Jules, keep it up.
The caretaker quickly removed both openers, a smart catch from Deep Fat, being the first of three in a fine all round performance. A fine running catch in the deep from Big Doug snaring the second. The Caretaker's third was clean bowled with a beautifully flighted ball.
The Judge picked up a couple more and we were on top. The sixth wicket took some time to arrive as Porter and Sadiqi couldn't decide whether to try and win the game or play for the arrival of the rain. Eventually they decided this was a match they could win. Going for their shots brought The Caretaker two more wickets, both courtesy of fine catches from Pritch.
The rain came, a pathetic amount really, but enough for the umpires to state that unless it stopped this would be the last over. The Caretaker took another one, and the rain stopped long enough for another over from Big Willy Willmott. (He is a fully paid up member of the Will Smith fan club, and has all the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air series on both VHS and DVD).
It only took him two balls, a straight one trimming the off stump to take them to 172 for 9, Oxford number 11 didn't look to be pleased to batting. He needn't have bothered at all as Sean did for him with a full, fast, straight one and he was LBW for a golden.
Cue hollering, whooping and hugging mid pitch.
Another fabulous team performance with stand out performances from Broughtie and The Caretaker who finished with 6 for 68 from 20 overs to claim the best bowling figures of the season so far.
Didcot II v Banbury IV
Didcot II lose to Banbury 4th
Didcot won the toss and elected to bat. Didcot started well with a 230+ target in mind with first and second wicket partnerships of 50 runs each between Prasad and Viraj and then between Jose and Viraj. Didcot at 25 overs were 105 for 2 when Viraj Perera was out caught for 72. With 22 overs left with 7 wickets in hand Didcot were well placed, but Didcot collapsed for 167 runs in the 40th over.
Having not used up all the overs Banbury had 53 over to get 167 runs. Didcot although fought to the end taking 6 wickets Didcot bowling wasn’t accurate (just compare the extras!) enough to trouble Banbury too much.
Banbury iV 25 Didcot II 9 points
As for the 3's! Well when the skipper starts off with the game plan of 'hope
it rains and soon' you can see we didn't actually have a positive mindset.
We won the toss and elected to field. Rob Green bowled fast and accurately
and really stood out, ending with 3 for 57. The skipper bowled two leg stump full tosses to start
with and got worse as the game progressed. Raj, 2 for 21, James Bywater and Lewis all
bowled well.
We soon started dropping catches and didn't really stop. We managed to take
6 wickets before they declared after 41 overs on 203-6.
Catches to Durrant, Sawhney and Ramanathan.
Batting was an immediate struggle against a very strong and confident young
team. We were bowled out for 72 in 27 overs with only Haydn getting into
double figures (22).
Not a great day but we played against a strong side with the best 13 year
old wickie you will ever see.
4ths lost to Oxford V (or VI, gets confusing).
We faced some serious demons on the Clifton Hampden pitch, with Les Addison
out first ball and both of their openers getting serious bounce and lift.
The other opener, Jonathan Hall, wore several and bears the bruises, but has
plenty of padding to take the blows.
Tom Spears top scored with 30, but no-one else was able to make a
significant contribution. When their experienced spinner came on, Tom was
unable to contain his excitement and lifted one into the air, and Simon
stepped on his stumps.
Their 10th man pulled up in agony chasing a ball with a torn calf muscle so
they would only be batting with 9.
Dan Stainthorpe and Humza Nadeem caused problems for Oxford's bowlers, but
couldn't find the same demons in the pitch. Oxford's opener lifted several
lofted fours and two sixes, one into the road outside the ground. Humza
took the wicket of their opener, caught by Hall from a ball that went so
high the rest of the team had tea while waiting for it to come back to
earth. Dan was particularly unlucky, missing a sharp caught and bowled
chance, and with a lofted top edge dropping between fielders despite a
valiant effort by Simon. Another sharp chance to Les in the slips went too
high. All told, probably 5 or 6 that on another day would have given
wickets, but eventually Didcot ran out of steam despite accurate bowling
from Harry Grainger and Alex Rodman at the end.
Didcot IV are still searching for the elusive victory but are competitive.
Just need to put more runs on the board, increase crease occupation and
convert the chances.
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