Report from Noah Beckell
Oakley hosted Old basing 3s in a sort of must-win game for the Oaks following a torrid run of recent form that has seen only 1 win in the last 5. It was an overcast day with an Oakley-looking pitch meaning the toss would be important considering the weather would improve throughout the day. Thankfully, for the first time in weeks, Jack lost the toss and we were bowling.
Oaks Bowling
Opening the bowling was James and Noah and the ball was swinging early when given the chance. Still, Noah likes to test the whole of the pitch so there were still a couple of short half-trackers in there. James from the other end however was bowling consistent line and length and beating the bat several times. He will be really good for the 1st team I’m sure.
James picked up a wicket in his first couple of overs or at least we thought but the umpire said no. I hate to say an obvious nick behind but it was pretty clear he didn’t hit the floor as the umpire said. The game moved on and the Oaks were now struggling to break the opening stand that had just passed 50.
Enter Big Mike
Mike replaced Noah and like always was bowling well. Following an exchange with the batsmen (I feared for his life), Mike then dismissed him 3 balls later after he told Mike his bowling was disgusting. Ironically it was Mike’s worst ball of that over. Mike then picked up 2 more with 2 good catches from Ian (who had a very good day behind the stumps).
George was also hooping the ball from the other end and bowled well unlucky to not pick up a wicket. George then took an absolute screamer at cover off the bowling of James Lancaster with a 1 handed dive to his right. Jack replaced Mike after his 8rs and bowled well again (Boo). He dismissed the opener who looked reluctant to leave for some reason and then picked up 1 more. Noah then came back and bowled some dross at the end to complete the Old Basing innings with them finishing on 175-7.
Woody and Bowny show Oakley how to bat
Needing 176 to win with the batting lineup we had should be a breeze but after the last couple of weeks, nerves were all over the place at Oakley Park (they probably weren’t but it sounds good). That soon vanished as Woody smashed the ball through extra cover to start the innings. Both he and Bowny (irons) never looked in any sort of trouble as they stroked the ball all over the ground.
Bowny played some sort of ridiculous baseball smash over cow corner for 6 and Woody hit 9 4s which I’m sure were good but I don’t remember any of the other 8. After bringing up the 100 partnership (smashing the season record of 17) both were dismissed just short of 50 after some class attempted slogs across the line.
Nigel then came to the crease and batted beautifully (that time in the 1s sorted him right out) with Jack scoring a quick-fire 12 of 7 balls. Ian then joined Nigel and both completed the innings with Nigel finishing on 28 not out and Ian 7 not out. A relatively simple chase in the end with good batting.
A good performance
Saturday was more of the performance that we expect from everyone with a solid effort all around. If we can play like that week in and week out for the rest of the season we should finish well. We aren’t gonna be in the promotion fight but we shouldn’t go down which is I suppose a positive. We play St Mary Bourne next week hoping to deliver a similar performance.
Up the Oaks!