Recap

By John Thompson

Who said ‘win-lose-draw’ cricket resulted in boring draws ?!?! – this one certainly wasn’t, with almost every result possible until the final ball the 1st’s came away from Swifts with a winning draw in the bag that could very easily have gone the other way.

As seems to be the norm, we started in electric fashion with Martin (63) and Saurabh (26) bringing up another 50 opening partnership in the 8th over before Saurabh was well caught. Martin went to a second consecutive 50, again with 11 boundaries as he and Sandeep (59) added 77 for the 2nd wicket and at halfway we were 120-odd for 1 with another huge total on the cards. The onslaught continued after Martin’s departure with Romi promoted to four, making 37 and Mansour his first sizeable contribution with 38 as we went past first 200, and then 250 in the final over thanks to late cameos from Sam and Lucky.

Defending 258 on most days would be straightforward, but the outfield was quick and the opposition intent on playing their shots so securing a result did not come easily.

Govind made the first breakthrough, quickly followed by Rakesh as both Swifts’ openers were gone before 30 was on the board. This brought in the engine room of their batting with Tom Davies (86) and Josh Bishop (28) leading the fightback. They took the score to 93 before the latter gifted JT a wicket hitting the ball straight to Lucky at backward square. With Martin off the field following recurrence of his groin injury we were down to 10 men and this made stopping boundaries harder. With Rakesh needing to leave early Martin was forced to return to the fray (courtesy of nurse Lynne’s medicine cabinet) but this turned out to be a decisive moment in our favour as he bowled Davies for 86 with the score on 186. Govind plucked a great running catch out of the air off Romi soon after but Swifts kept in touch as they passed 200. Connor Clarke now took over the bulk of the scoring and with a brace of 6s kept the asking rate around 7 an over as we entered the final half a dozen overs. We were not to be beaten though as the ‘death’ overs were entrusted to Govind and Lucky who were able to cut off the flow of boundaries. And with no fielding restrictions we were able to push everyone back in the last couple of overs to prevent the rope being reached and even picked up a pair of run outs in the final over as Clarke’s partners committed batting suicide to keep him on strike. It all boiled down to 6 off the final ball to draw the scores level, but Govind kept his nerve and Clarke was only able to drive a single down to long on.

A game that showed us at our best with the bat, but where old bad habits resurfaced in the field as we gave away too many runs in the outfield and by bowling too many extra deliveries that in the end could well have cost us dear.

Details

Date Time League Season Result
June 12, 2021 1:00 pm Cherwell Cricket League –Division 6B 2021 Drawn

Venue

Witney Swifts 2

Results

TeamRunsWicketsOutcome
RCC 12586Draw
Witney Swifts 22537Draw

RCC 1

Batting Dismissal Runs Ct St
Martin Kalyan*c Bob Godwin b Craig Horne6300
Saurabh Mehrotrac Edd Priest b Craig Horne2600
Sandeep Georgec Tom Davies b Ben Horne5900
Romio Fernandes c Tom Davies b Andy Purdie3700
S M Mansoor Abbasi+ b Andy Purdie3810
Rakesh Nambiarc Connor Clarke b Bob Godwin200
Gaurav Samuelnot out 1600
Lokeshwar Bandhunot out 1310
Aman Kaushik 000
Govind Gour  010
John Thompson 000
Extras4 (b-1, lb-0, wd-3, nb-0)
Total 25830

Did not bat: Aman Kaushik, Govind Gour, John Thompson

Bowling O M R W Wd Nb
Rakesh Nambiar8139140
Govind Gour 12154170
Martin Kalyan*6020110
John Thompson6042100
Lokeshwar Bandhu8056040
Romio Fernandes 5032131
Total4522435191

Witney Swifts 2

Batting Dismissal Runs Ct St
Edd Priestc Aman Kaushik b Govind Gaur500
Josh Grantc S M Mansoor Abbasi b Rakesh Nambiar1300
Tom Davies b Martin Kalyan8600
Josh Bishopc Lokeshwar Bandhu b John Thompson2800
Connor Clarkenot out 7300
Ben Hornec Govind Gaur b Romio Fernandes400
Finlay Bolandrun out Romio Fernandes 1400
Andy Purdierun out Martin Kalyan 000
Jason Seacolenot out 000
Bob Godwin 000
Craig Horne 000
Extras30 (b-3, lb-7, wd-19, nb-1)
Total 25300

Did not bat: Bob Godwin, Craig Horne

Bowling O M R W Wd Nb
Craig Horne15355200
Ben Horne8055100
Andy Purdie8061200
Bob Godwin14086100
Total453257600