KCC II V Oxenford II

Finally some sunshine for the stiffs to start their 2018 campaign away at oxenford at the lovely setting of Jesus College .
The drama started for the skipper as soon as they left the brake when Oliver Snr realised he had left his whites at home :(.

Not to worry the emergency sirens were scrambled and Mrs O came to the rescue arriving at the ground not long after the start of play :)

Oliver Won the Toss and elected to bat, with the Whites Crisis a few tweaks were made to the batting line up and Boyce and Jeacock opened up. It was tough going as Oxenford set their stall out early and bowled nice tight lines and fielded very well .
Jeacock was first to fall in the fifth over having just dispatched Rowley for a 6, he then missed a full toss and was adjudged LBW for 7. Oliver finally had some whites at this stage and made it to the crease with Boyce , its fair to say neither batsman looked overly aggressive at this stage and looked to score from anything loose, which by all accounts wasn't often.
Boyce was ran out in the 18th over with the score on 35 having fallen over half way down the wicket mid run, and being ran out for 18.
Oliver was joined by Pratt , Pratt immediately put some impetus into the innings and looked to rotate the strike and increased the run rate.
Unfortunately both batsmen kept hitting the well placed fielders , Pratt raced to 20 but unfortunately holed out to midwicket with a well struck lofted drive in the 26th over with the score now on 78, unfortunately young launchbury failed to trouble the scorers and we were 78 for 4.
This bought debutante Brock to the crease who immediately looked assured and played with purpose from the off. Oliver and Brock rotated the strike well with both working the ball around the ground, unfortunately the partnership came to an end in the 38th over when Brock who was looking to push on failed to get hold of one of Carr's loopy deliveries for a superb 21 , KCC now on 133 and the overs running out started to try and increase the run rate. Oliver, although having been in for most of the innings was struggling to find the boundary , KCC lost wickets at a fast rate over the next few overs and Oxenford's Ozzy left arm bowler was proving hard to play. KCC eventually closed their innings on 163 for 9 Oliver Snr with 74* and Oliver Jnr carrying his bat after some great running in the final over. But it felt like this was well below par on what was a good early season wicket

After a good tea KCC looked to defend their below par score, Things did'nt get off to a great start as Opener Gulati started to dispatch the ball to all parts of the ground,
Oxenford reached 50 inside 6 overs and in the 7th over Gulati reached hi 50 with the score on 54!..
Oliver jnr was the pick of the bowlers and split the opening partnership with a good caught and bowled , Brock dismissed the other opener with his first delivery.
Unfortunately though rather than things getting easier they got harder and Sturges took over from where Gulat had left off and dispatched the ball to all parts of the ground and Quickly raced along to 56 himself and finished the match in style, smashing Launchbury for 6 off his final ball of the 18th over to finish a comprehensive victory for the home side.