Report from Benjamin Robinson
Oaks 3s turned up at Newfound in a confident mood with a seemingly strong line-up. However any optimism soon faded after the Jeff lost the toss and 40 overs in the field loomed with a deceivingly good looking pitch.
Hidden Demons
Fortunately the strip at Newfound had hidden demons and a probing opening spell from Jeff and Ollie threatened both the toes and noses of the Littleton openers. Those openers dug in well though and saw off the opening spells without loss, albeit having never really cut loose.
As always, a tight opening spell opened the door for the change bowlers. A mixture of the good and the ugly from Benjamin broke the deadlock before a heroic boundary catch from Deano sent the no3 packing in the same over. At the other end Ravi was bowling beautifully and started to pick off the middle order. The remaining opener was extracted with a superp ‘moon ball’ leaving Littleton reeling. Ravi finished off with a superb 4-fer.
The remaining Littleton batsmen stuck about but rarely troubled the scorers and the total was limited to 163 following a wicket from Kallum and a one handed pluck of his own bowling from Benjamin.
The Chase
The chase started in positive fashion, a boundary off the first ball from Dan. However some tight bowling on an unpredictable pitch limited the scoring rate. Dan eventually fell looking to up the ante and Phil and Kris struggled to 50-2 at drinks – Phil falling on the last ball of the 20th.
A middle order collapse ensued. Kris, Nick and Benjamin all fell in quick succession with the pitch continuing to assist the bowlers. Steve and Jeff threatened a revival with an enterprising partnership but the damage had already been done. Jeff continued to strike some lusty blows but the Oaks were eventually bowled out 40 short of the target.
A disappointing day with the game feeling very winnable for 60 of the 80 overs. The 3s will be striving to bounce back from two successive defeats when they are back in action next week.