First XI report from Brad Compton-Bearne
It was a nice muggy overcast day as the Oakley First XI searched for their first win. On inspection of the pitch before the game it was noticeable the covers had not done their designed job as one end resembled a swamp whilst the other end was nice and dry. On that basis it was decided if the toss was won Oakley would have a bowl. Thankfully the coin toss sided with the Oaks and IBM Hursley were put into bat. We’d soon realise the pitch did not exactly get any better throughout the game though.
Up stepped Josh Carpenter to get the game underway and boy did he get it underway with a bang, getting the IBM opener out first ball with a lovely delivery. Josh followed this up with some more beautiful bowling to earn another 2 wickets in his opening spell. He was backed up by the returning Neil Robinson, who bowled some nice stuff to restrict IBM to around 20-3 off the first 10 overs.
This set the scene for Oakley newbie Stefan Kaltner in his first game for the club, to come onto bowl. It wouldn’t be normal for any newbie to bowl their first ball for Oakley and it not be a wide, so Stefan happily obliged, with an albeit maybe harsh first delivery wide for Oakley. After that his line and length was bang on and bowled with some great control which the IBM middle order could not get away. He was finally rewarded with his first Oakley wicket from an LWB. A second wicket came soon after with a lovely delivery which which Stefan followed up with an ‘Alan Shearer’ one arm raised celebration as he ran down the wicket. He will now be known as Shearer, whether he likes it or not.
The IBM’s middle order were turgid and from a good start of around 40-5, IBM managed to post 129-9 on the board with the other wickets coming for Brad Compton-Bearne (1) Alex Brundle (1) and Neil Robinson (2).
Captain Alex Brundle knew this was not going to be easy on a pudding of a pitch and having checked his weather app, realised there may have been rain in an hours time. Due to this, the decision was made to send Brad Compton-Bearne in on his Oakley return to open and try and get it done before the rain hit. A nice hard swing which led to an edge over point for 2 runs was enough to get him off the mark before following this up with a few lusty sixes and fours before he was caught on the boundary for 39 with the score 60-2 off 7 overs.
Although the game seemed to be getting away from them, IBM did not give up and showed great spirit with a stumping and a fantastic run out to get Will Montgomery. One he would not like to see back. In came Matt Burrell and Chris Morris to steady the ship and get Oakley to 99-4 and it looked like it was ‘coming home’ with Oakley needing 30 off around 25 overs.
Unfortunately, things did not go to plan as Chris Morris fell for 13 and was soon followed by James Bayliss, Alex Brundle and Matt Burrell to leave Oakley 101-8. Although, if you want a personal account of the LBW that was given against Matt Burrell then I am sure he will happily tell you how much of a ‘terrible decision’ the LBW was, and he made sure the umpire knew this was a ‘terrible decision’ as he walked off.
Thankfully, Oakley bat very low down and Neil Robinson came in at number 10 and steadied the ship with one of the best 0 not outs I have seen. This allowed Josh Carpenter at the other end to play a mature and sensible innings at the young age of 15. Making sure the good ball was blocked and anything bad was dispatched to the boundary. With the game looking nervy as Oakley still needed 20 runs, a welcome over of 15 due to some nice boundaries from Josh and 5 wides which were widely accepted with cheers from the Oakley team watching on. With 4 runs left to win, Josh hit a fantastic straight drive back past the bowler and Oakley celebrated their first league win in County Two with big cheers from the sidelines. I think even Will Montgomery cracked a little smile.
Oakley were thankful to IBM Hursley for a good fought even game and for getting the game on when the weather was so bad the day before. To compound misery for one of the IBM Hursley players, after coming over to fist bump everyone after the game, he somehow managed to fall over a cricket bag and end up flat in the floor which gave everyone a laugh for whoever was around to see it. Oakley now need to build on this good performance and follow this up with some more wins in the coming weeks.
Up the Oaks!