Match reports

Oakhill CC v Old Albanian Cricket Club

Scorecard

Oakhill CC v Old Albanian Cricket Club Sunday Cavaliers on Sun 09 May 2010 at 2pm
Old Albanian Cricket Club Lost by 52 runs

Match report

After a somewhat fraught week trying to secure the services of mates, OAs players, friends-of-friends, work colleagues, their nans etc, the Cavaliers managed to squeeze together a side for a fixture against new opponents, Oakhill CC.

Skipper Fraser Tant knew that his side's weakpoint would be with the bat, with a who's who of top order absentees including Jim Handford, Ellis Thorpe, Simon Foster, Paul Wise, Lance Boyd-Clarke and Nick Brindley. So, he was rather relieved when his opposing number won the toss and decided to bat. What followed was a fine display of bowling and fielding that the Cavaliers can hardly have expected. With first-choice new ball bowler Matt Penhaligan still en-route. (Late: £1(, debutant Andrew Salveson, fresh from a ton for his school the day before, opened the bowling with aplomb. Few have begun their Cavaliers careers with a maiden, but Salvo duly did this, before claiming a fine caught and bowled in his second over. From the other end, Tant was right on the money, and in conditions favouring swing bowling, will have felt aggreived when the normally safe hands of Todd Baines spilled an easy chance at first slip. However, the damage was short-lived, when Tant's much-maligned slower ball duped the batsman and clean bowled him for a duck.

Wickets continued to fall as Oakhill's largely Afghani top order played with a rather cavalier attitude themselves. The newly-arrived Penhaligan replaced Salveson and was quickly among the wickets, while Rahul Thakkar's spell began with the very definition of liquorice allsorts, the first ball a three-bounce no-ball wacked for 4, the second a lovely off-cutter that was spooned to Alex Demain at mid-wicket. Another wicket followed for Thakkar, with the hosts inching past 100, before spin twins Andy Thornton and David Best removed the lower order, with Best recording his best Cavs figures of 3 for 8. With the last pair in, Tail-end Tant brought himself back in to the attack, bowling the last man with his first ball to bring the innings to a close at 127 in the 25th over.

Such a low score was better than the Cavs could have hoped for - but within three overs of the reply, they were in disarray. Oakhill's opening attack was not particularly fast but, crucially, very accurate. Debutant Nick McLean looked the part briefly, before losing his off stump in the second over, and his opening partner Alex Domain was bowled behind his legs in the third. Big hitting Jon Gregory was next up and will no doubt have sleepless nights about the choice of shot to his first ball, bowled trying to launch it in to the pavilion. (Fine: £10) At 5 for 3, the Cavaliers were in trouble.

Salvesen and Baines began to rebuilding watchfully, before the former unluckily found mid-off from arguable the first bad ball he had faced, scoring 9. When Baines was the victim of a dreadful shooter on 14, the game was surely up. Tant and Penhaligan reigned in their aggressive instincts before the captain played around a straight one on five, quickly followed by Thakkar and Thornton for ducks (fine: £5) and Best for 1. Penhaligan was the last man out in just the 15th over, for a gusty 18, with Nigel Timms not out without scoring.

Perhaps in a friendly game such as this, Oakhill might have thrown the ball to some more occasional bowlers to make a game of it, as happened in their innings. And, as mentioned earlier, the Cavs were shorn of many of their key batsmen. But ultimately, 8 bowled dismissals shows that the Cavaliers must look first at their forward defensives rather than look for excuses elsewhere.

"Yeah, that was disappointing" commented Baines. "The bowlers did the hard work in the field, supported well by the fielders, but we let ourselves down with the bat. We'll have to apply ourselves much better if we are to beat St Albans next weekend."