Match Report - OUCCC vs United Oxford Hospitals at Manny Rd, Sunday 08 July 2007
Hospitals won the toss and elected to field. OUCCC innings: Gawley lbw 15 Fox bowled 11 Dipayan caught 111 Rahman caught 35 Wrobel caught 29 P.-Bouverie bowled 18 Adcock bowled 3 Iqbal caught 2 Fraser not out 21 Hartin stumped 1 Howells not out 5 Extras 15 Total: 266 for 9 from 40 overs Fall of wickets: 27, 39, 108, 200, 229, 233, 237, 239, 251 UOH innings: Ferris bowled Adcock 7 Costain bowled P.-Bouverie 47 Selvaraj ct (Hartin) P.-Bouverie 46 Venables c&b Fraser 53 Flowers ct (Gawley) Fraser 16 Francis lbw Hartin 0 Angrish bowled Hartin 24 Grey bowled Fraser 3 Hogg bowled Fraser 2 Franklin bowled Howells 7 Bawdry not out 0 Extras 36 Total: 243 for 10 from 38 overs Fall of wickets: 22, 90, 170, 194, 199, 209, 217, 235, 237, 243 Howells 6 0 30 1 Adcock 3 0 33 0 Iqbal 6 0 41 0 P.-Bouverie 8 0 45 2 Dipayan 1 0 15 0 Hartin 8 0 40 2 Fraser 6 1 19 4 Result: OUCCC won by 23 runs Our innings: Looking ahead to the weekend, it has become tradition to consult the BBC weather forecast. And it looked, yet again, that the BBC would give the kiss-of-death to our weekend's cricket by forecasting "mostly sunny" weather for Saturday and Sunday. But, unlike so many times this "summer," there was to be no disappointment: indeed the weather was actually sunny, bordering on down right hot. Despite the baking weather prevalent for the previous two days, the covers over the pitch had in fact acted to prevent the pitch, drenched after torrential downpours during the week, from drying out. So that we were faced with a still slightly-damp wicket upon removing the covers prior to the match. After losing the toss, the opposition captain fancied his bowlers making use of the literally sticky wicket and chose to field first. I opened with Simon and, early on, we were able to keep out the better balls while scoring at a reasonable rate off the odd bad ball. Simon eventually had a corker of a ball the swung and moved off the seam and was out bowled. I was out a few overs later attempting to play across the line to a straight ball which hit me on the boot: plumb lbw. After this opening stanza, Tanzil and Dipayan took to the crease. With the best of the bowling almost over, they were able to accelerate the scoring rate. Perhaps due to a combination of the pitch drying out, and, the bowlers slightly tiring in the weather, runs were coming freely. Tanzil eventually holed out just before drinks: but with the score a healthy 108 for 3 we were hardly in trouble. After drinks, Dipayan continued where he left off. Gradually passing his half century, and pushing further on. Tom provided great support, and, although the pairing of Wrobel and Das could hardly be described as Manny Road's speediest between the wickets, the supply of boundaries was not in short supply. Tom indeed managed a big six to "cow corner" albeit being helped over the line by an unwitting fielder. Tom eventually was caught (by the same fielder who had dropped him twice previously) for a very useful 29. Barty came to the crease and was determined to keep the scoring rate flowing. Dipayan, at the other end, heeded the call and proceeded to hit 20+ runs off two consecutive overs. In doing so, he notched up yet another century for Manny Rd: the archivists will no doubt need to investigate the record number of centuries in a summer for Manfield Road. At the other end, Barty survived an early chance and went on to hit 18 runs before attempting one lofted shot too many and was out bowled. Tom, taking his place at the crease, immediately found his timing; hitting three runs and was looking good. Unfortunately he copped a ball that kept low and, and is often the case with grubbers, was pitched on middle stump. Aman and Tony also had some bad luck, falling for one and two respectively. Some excellent death batting by Manny Rd debutant, Alistair, saw him add 21 to the score -- including an enormous down-the-ground six that almost made it on to the Balliol pitch -- off just eight balls. Ruairidh's cameo of five runs from two balls kept the momentum. With our final total standing at 266, we were confident that this would defendable. Tea report: Yet another successful implementation of the tea-in-the-club policy in place this summer. This time I even remembered to bring milk for the tea. A solid 8.5 / 10. Their innings: An afternoon of sun had dried out the pitch somewhat. And, by now, it was offering very little at all for the bowlers. So the Hospitals immediately took advantage: their openers were hitting out right from the start. An excellent ball from Tom in the forth over to remove one of their openers did nothing to stem the tide of runs. And before long, the run rate was well above the required 6.5: at one point it was nudging double figures. Eventually we were able to some what slow dowin the scoring rate. But it wasn't until the introduction of Barty and his finger spin, that we had another breakthrough. But, with the score over 150 for 2 at drinks, there was still a lot of work to be done. A critical spell after drinks, with Barty tying down one end and Tony bowing medium pace from the other, turned out to be critical. Wickets started falling: one more to Barty and two for Tony. With the batsmen still finding the middle from time to time -- and it was enough given the plethora of runs that had come before -- the match was still in the balance. However, some tight bowling from Alistair from the Pharmacology end, saw yet more wickets fall and the match slowly by surely turn in our favour. Ruairidh chimed in with a wicket from the Balliol end to finish off the match. In the end, the Hospitals side fell just 23 runs short. A good fight back from Manny Rd saw us pick up our third win on the trot.