3rd XI go down to Stanton Harcourt

The day started with only 9 players on the team sheet, although with our newley created What’s App group Moss put out a plea for more players, Razwan Dogar (Injured) and his brother both agreed to play, then checking the OCA website realising only 5 people were registered it was a busy morning for stand in skipper moss!

On arrival to the ground in glorious weather we had another player not play due to injury in the morning which the message did not get to the skipper, so we had to play with 10.

Moss won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first with a make shift side with new and old players he had no intention of allowing Stanton to hit a 300+ Score which they did last time against us.

M Kimber and Dogar opened the batting, Kimber went first (0) which brought debutant U13 Behal (7) to the crease, who looked very secure until he chased a wide one, Mackenzie (4) was the next to go, Moss (4) out to an LBW to an crazy decision after hitting the ball onto his pads, but all the time this was going on “Stand and Deliver” Razwan was smashing the ball to all parts of the ground, not being able to run probably was the best thing for him!, We were in trouble now but S Kimber (25) played an innings of great composure for an U15, and it was so proud to watch a lad who has progressed through our junior ranks and come and bat like he did, to allow Raz to keep smashing the bowlers to all parts of the ground getting to his 50 in no time at all.

Wallace (14) hung around for a while U Dogar (0) Turner (0) to allow Razwan to keep hitting 4’s and 6s, taking Razwan to 98 for what would have been an amazing century, but last in was Hewitt (0) cleaned bowled to leave Razwan Not Out on 98, but an amazing innings.
Kidlington ended up 164 all out.

After a nice tea, we set to the task of defending what was a low score on a good track, Hewitt 5-1-22-1 picked up the first wicket of the game trapping the opener Graham (4), Behal picked up the next with his first ever senior wicket 6-1-17-1, but with little bowling left Moss 7-1-32-1 had to come on but was pretty angry with the umpire after his dismissal so as soon as that LBW shout was an option it was loud and sure enough the umpire gave it, have to be honest the pitch did help with the dismissal!, U Dogar 10- 0-56-0 could not find that wicket, R Dogar 2-0-21-0 leaving S Kimber 0.1-0-4-0.

But poor fielding and the old saying of catches win matches, (5 dropped) it allowed A Vaughan (46no) D Wastie (49no) to win the match inside 31 overs.

A good start to the season and lots to look forward to.