The Oaks bowed out of the Cyril Thomson Plate after a thrilling contest with AWE Rugby last night.
The Oaks bowled first and reduced AWE to 123 off 18 Overs after a decent effort in the field. However, there were a few errors that gifted runs to the opposition that we hoped would not be too costly. We would soon find out.
Wickets went to Josh, Harry, DJ, and Sumner, with Stef wicketless but the meanest of the bowlers.
Chasing the target, we lost Will Cheyney and Dan Sumner early on, but an excellent rebuild by DJ and Josh Carpenter took the game back towards us. Both players were running well and taking on anything loose that came along amongst some excellent AWE bowling.
However, after DJ (38) and Josh (33) went within a couple of balls of each other, the game swung back towards AWE. Their bowling was tight and their fielding sharp and no one could get motoring as the run rate increased.
After Bayliss went for six, George Lethaby and Ian Bennett ran hard between the wickets to try and get us back on top. When Ian hit a towering six, it looked like game on. However, Ian was brilliantly run out after going for a second run. Bown hit a four from his first ball and again it was game on, but he or George couldn’t quite find that one big blow we needed.
It came down to needing three off the last delivery, but Bown couldn’t make contact, leaving AWE to celebrate wildly as George and Bown trudged off not out but beaten. We would have done the same. It was a thrilling encounter to win and a gutting one to lose. It left us, with beers in hands, reflecting on a few basic miss fields and the timing of the departures of Dan and Josh when well set to see us through. It was that close.
When all is said and done, it was a great game to watch. AWE deserved their victory in a game that was played in an excellent spirit throughout.
Good luck to them in the final.
On we travel!