The 3s were welcomed to Cove with a piece of quintessential village…. A missing storeroom key meant the teams were 6 stumps short of the required number and also missing markers for the cunningly disguised boundary. However, all were all quickly sourced which allowed for a slightly delayed start. Jeff “Bat First” Triner won the toss and decided to…. bat first.
Good Start Batting First
Jeff and Dan made a decent start, putting on a run a ball of 68 for the first wicket. Jeff then decided to continue the catching practice drill that he started the previous week and chip another chance to extra cover. Dan followed Jeff back to the hutch a few overs later, having been undone by teenage leg spinner Fraser Gibbs. He bowled an excellent spell, showing great flight and control. The scoring rate did slow a bit, but that was while Ben was playing himself in, preparing to launch a bit of a middle overs onslaught. Some careful pinching of the strike allowed Ben to rattle along to 70, before giving up just one chance too many.
Ben had set Oaks up nicely to reach the 200 mark. It was left to Ryan and Ravi to scamper the runs required. A relatively slow outfield meant that boundaries were at a premium. Much encouragement was offered from the sidelines to turn ones into twos, which those two fleet-footed batters proved themselves capable of doing. 208 was a good outcome.
208 to Defend
Ollie and Avi were given the first shot at leading the defence of that total. Both bowled with a miserly accuracy. A few chances went astray (Avi is probably still muttering about them even now) and the left-arm swing twins were unable to break Cove’s stubborn opening partnership. Jeff turned to the spin duo of James and Ravi, hoping that their mystery balls would open the door to another Oaks victory. But even those masters of the tweaking arts couldn’t find the key. It wasn’t until the 27th over that Jeff himself was finally able to crack the code, courtesy of a leaping, diving, tumbling catch from Ollie (some poetic license taken here by your correspondent!)
Dan then sought to rouse the competitive spirit in the Oaks, claiming with confidence that we’d be able to take the rest of the wickets required for a maximum points victory. And so it proved to be. Wickets started to fall at regular intervals, to Jeff’s accurate seam bowling and James’s spin. In the midst of that, Alex was quietly going about making his way to a maiden five-wicket haul for the Oaks. That gave him the Man of the Match award, although that was a close call with Ben. His 70 runs were the platform for a total that always looked challenging for Cove to match.
A Town Called Promotion?
So a third win on the trot for the 3s. The match was played in a good spirit with a friendly bunch from Cove. Oaks showed patience in both batting and fielding which ultimately led to a comfortable victory. The team can clearly be looking up the table rather than down. Is the destination for this particular bus a town called Promotion? Tune in next week for the next thrilling installment.