The penultimate game of the season saw Oakley welcome Hungerford to a slightly greener looking Oakley Park after some much-needed rain in the week. As match preparations begun and Woody discussed this week’s pre-review, the Hungerford team eventually showed up. Hungerford won the toss of course and chose to bat.
Fielding First
Stefan started with the new ball and it couldn’t have gone any better, a wicket maiden to start with the opening batsmen bowled by the perfect out-swinger. Bowers opened at the other end where the farmers were out ploughing the field, shouldn’t be anything to bother us. Stefan and Dave toiled away beating the bat a couple of times but to no luck, the batsmen were quick to jump on anything slightly off the mark now beginning to build a good partnership. Minding his own business ploughing the field, the farmer noticed something had to change in our game and duly obliged as he drove past by taking the corner too tight in his tractor, destroying the fence, and taking the boundary rope with him. Whoopsie.
Once we’d cleared that drama the match resumed, the 100 partnership was brought up and then ended in the 17th over as Bayliss took a sharp catch at cover to give DJ a wicket. Bayliss injured himself taking the catch splitting the webbing on his hand and lifting a fingernail, this could have all been avoided if he had caught it properly (Bayliss’ words). A couple overs later, Josh struck at the other end removing the dangerous opening batsmen who had just passed 50.
Another Hungerford batsmen batted well for an aggressive half century before being bowled by Neil Robinson after switching back to bowling seam following a few overs trying his hand at spin bowling. Neil finished with two seam wickets and Will Cheyney picked up another with some classic leg spin. There were also two smart run outs by Stefan and Will to leave Oakley a target of 264.
A Big Chase
DJ and Will opened the batting and got off to a flyer thanks to a combination of some lovely shots by Will and a kind offering of wides from the Hungerford bowlers. The partnership was broken at 68 in the 9th over with Will departing for a well made 34 and was followed shortly after by DJ for 21. This brought Bayliss to the crease who was nursing the self-inflicted hand injury, despite the pain Bayliss was elegant as ever before departing also for 21. Woody came to crease and chose aggression smacking the Hungerford spinner for six back over his head, before also departing for 17. A frustrating case for all top four batsmen getting starts but no one capitalising.
This started a mini collapse from 124-3 to 139-7, Oakley’s leading run scorer Josh Carpenter remained at the crease, so all was not over. Josh continued to take the runs that were on offer, putting away the bad balls when they came his way while still being patient. Brundle supported at the other end playing some of the most painful looking forward defence shots you will ever see. As a result, he had to retire hurt which caused confusion and border line chaos as Dave rushed to get to the crease. Dave batted well hitting a nice four over the top before getting out to the Hungerford spinner that would go on to take a well deserved 5-fer. It would appear Dave is now on a slippery slope getting out.
Falling Just Short
Josh continued at the other end now well supported by Neil. They continued to match patience with aggression against the bad bowling in a very well-made partnership of 58 for the 9th wicket. Josh fell trying to push the score along for 41 having done an excellent job to put us into a position where we could win the game. Brundle returned to the crease with Neil still going along with the rate. Needing 20 runs off the final two overs, it was inevitable some risks had to be taken. Eventually Neil was bowled for 30 runs, a great effort, as Oakley were bowled out 16 runs short of the target.
On we go…