Ouseburn Home Match Report

Scorecard

Although the sun was shining at the toss, the weather forecast was for heavy showers. Therefore on winning the toss, we decided to field in order to retain control in the event of rain. We welcomed two new recruits into the team, Lee Sadique and Charlie Afzal - who took the new ball.

We started well, with Robbie Andonovski inducing a poor shot from Ouseburn's opener, skewing a simple chance to the skipper at cover (2-1), and moved further ahead when Charlie Afzal (10-1-38-1) removed Ouseburn's number 3 with a straight ball that kept low (37-2). The rain had by now begun to arrive, so Steve Lawrence was introduced into the attack whilst the ball was still dry.

Ouseburn had by this point realised that the imminent arrival of the rain would curtail their innings and had started to attack. By the time that Sam Parker was caught at long off for 22 (another well judged catch by Steve Ellison) the score had advanced to 71-3, with Jamie Bryant batting well at the other end. Steve Lawrence (12-1-47-1) then removed Tom Parker, who having looked very uncomfortable against leg spin charged down the wicket and was competently stumped by Chris Eckford.

The rain became steadily more insistent and finally we left the field after 26.2 overs with the score on 85-4. The rain was almost horizontal at times and the windows of the dressing room seemed more like the windshield of a speedboat in rough seas. Together with an earlier 1 over rain break, we lost a total of 10 overs - reducing the game to 35 overs.

Ouseburn had 9.4 overs and 6 wickets remaining, so a score of under 140 looked likely. However, the bowlers' run ups were very wet, as was the outfield. This meant that Robbie had difficulty gaining a footing whilst Steve Lawrence had issues with gripping the wet ball. Nevertheless, Jamie Bryant and John Moorhouse batted well, putting on 40 for the fifth wicket before Robbie (12-2-57-4) removed Jamie Bryant and Peter Townsend in quick succession - the second wicket an excellent one handed caught and bowled.

However, by now John Moorhouse had his eye in and hit some long, straight 6s to add another unbroken 40 for the 7th wicket, to lift Ouseburn to a challenging 158-6 of their 35 overs.

Dacre's reply started slowly, and just as Steve Lawrence was starting to build some momemtum he was bowled off his inside edge for 10. Lee Sadique was unable to get off the mark before edging to gully, and the skipper got a bit of a rough decision in being given out caught behind when missing the ball by a good 3 inches for just 1. Charlie Afzal followed in short order for another duck, before the rest of the batting line up proceeded to make Tom Parker's slow, looping - though admittedly prodigiously turning offspin look less like he was bowling 5 3/4 oz of leather, cork and string - and more like he was lobbing a pound of high explosives down the wicket.

Robbie Andonovski managed 31 before holing out to long on (60-7), Chronic hit one of his trademark 6s over long off, and Callum McIntosh hit a crisp straight 6 before being stranded on 11*, but overall the innings was a pretty piss poor effort all round really.

We ended up on 78 all out from 29 overs, giving us precisely what we deserved from the game - no points.