Match Report - OUCCC vs Oxenford at Mansfield Road, Sunday 3 June, 2007
OUCCC won the toss and elected to bat OUCCC innings: Gawley run out 52 Dines bowled 0 Vasudevan caught 8 Rahman bowled 0 Dipayan run out 50 Iqbal l.b.w. 39 Diganta run out 1 Adcock not out 28 Booth bowled 0 Howells bowled 2 Barker not out 0 Extras 40 Total: 221 for 9 (40 overs) Switfly 8 2 17 3 Hayward 5 0 18 1 Matt 5 0 43 0 Owen 7 0 21 0 Bastable 5 1 29 0 Yaqoob 3 0 21 0 Malcolm 2 0 22 1 Glenn 3 0 28 1 Hamp 1 0 5 1 Oxenford innings: Malcolm caught (Adcock) Howells 4 Bastable bowled Booth 4 Hamp bowled Booth 17 C.-Burnett bowled Barker 18 Barrett bowled Booth 0 Terry bowled Diganta 29 Hayward bowled Diganta 12 Owen caught (Gawley) Diganta 7 Swiftly bowled Iqbal 4 Glenn caught (Gawley) Diganta 4 Wilding not out 0 Extras 18 Total: all out for 120 (31.5 overs) Booth 7 1 21 3 Howells 6 3 8 1 Adcock 4 0 33 0 Barker 8 1 24 1 Diganta 5.1 0 23 4 Iqbal 1 0 1 1 OUCCC won by 101 runs. Match report: Our innings: If a week is a long time in politics, four weeks in summer with no cricket borders on a lifetime. So, with no OUCCC cricket for the whole of May, many hearts were relived with the sight of not only perfect weather, but also an opposition ready, willing, and able to play. Inspecting the wicket at Mansfield road it looked like it would play reasonably well. With the sun beating down, and, with the opposition struggling with a chase the day before, I decided to bat first. It took only the first two overs to realise that, despite the hot and dry conditions, there was plenty of life in the pitch. Both opening bowlers -- and particularly the left armer -- were getting good, late, swing on the ball. This, mixed in with the odd ball jagging back off the seam, provided very tricky conditions indeed at the start of the innings. It didn't take long for the good bowling to produce results. Dines, Vasudevan and Rahman all offered stout resistance, but fell to absolute jaffas. So, after the first dozen overs, the score card was looking rather worrying; 25 for 3. As happens so often at Manny Rd, it was a debutant, in this case Dipayan, who came to the rescue. Some magnificent stroke play -- including one enormous six down the ground (luckily not breaking the glass in the Pharmacology building) -- saw the anaemic total grow rapidly. It wasn't until perhaps distracted by a LBW shout that Dipayan was stranded out of his crease and was out. But not before scoring a much-needed half-century. His wicket brought Aman to the crease. After a slow start, Aman decided to switch bats. And, perhaps the opposition may want to have a closer look at the bat he took on. Because after the change, Aman took off from exactly where Dipayan left off: smashing the ball to, and over, the boundary. When Aman was eventually out LBW to a Phil Glenn yorker, the total was already past 170 and there were still plenty of overs to come. Diganta looked good early, but, was run out -- just -- attempting to push a second run. Tom Adcock then came to the crease. Despite having helmet-related difficulties calling and batting at the same time, he luckily concentrated on the latter. Fierce batting saw the total now push over the psychological 200-barrier. A distinct lack of pace saw me run-out at this point, bringing Martin to the crease. Unfortunately, just in time for the return of the opening left-arm bowler. Ruairidh provided some stout resistance, however was out bowled with one ball remaining. This brought Elton, doing his best Rick McCosker impression by batting with three stitches in his forehead, to the crease to face the last ball on the innings. Nought not out was the result. The Tea: Sunday marked the dawn of a new Tea Era at Manny road. After last summer's highly controversial non-tea teas, change is afoot this year. After protracted negotiations, at the highest level, Tea -- brought in by club members -- is now able to be taken in the club itself. And the first instance of this new policy was very successful indeed. The idea is for selected members of the team to organise to bring in the teas on a rotational basis. And as Sunday was the first match under these circumstances, the committee members decided to get the ball rolling. So thank-yous go to Martin and Elton for helping out in this regard. Score: a solid 8/10. Their innings: Facing a very short boundary on the club-side, it was Martin who opened the bowling from the tricky Balloil end. The ball was swinging immediately and the Oxenford openers were looking (almost) as uncomfortable as the Manny Rd openers. Ruairidh took the ball from the Pharmacology end and straight away found a nice line and length nagging away outside off-stump. It didn't take long for the wickets to fall; Martin striking in the second over clean bowling an opener. Ruairidh had his wicket several overs later thanks to an absolutely cracking catch by Tom in the gully. Rounding out his spell superbly, Martin took two more wickets in his seventh over -- both bowled. These wickets saw Oxenford regulars, and usual upper order batsmen, Sean Terry and Nick CB settle in at the crease. It took precise and accurate bowling from Elton (bowled Nick CB) and Diganta (bowled Sean) to get the breakthroughs. Diganta -- continuing his excellent spell -- ran through the next couple of wickets. Aman, in a great cameo spell of one over, took an important wicket and ended with figures of one for one. Right at the end -- with victory close -- came the sight of two of Oxenford's biggest hitters: Phil Glenn and Andy Wilding. Phil was carrying a knee injury, but still looked more than capable of hitting the 10-an-over required. Thanks to some nice bowling from Diganta, Phil was out, caught, for just four. And the match was over: a confidence inspiring win of 100 runs to mark the first match of the summer at Manny Rd.