OECC 240 for 8 (40 overs) vs Wickham Park 233 all out (39.4 overs)

Another toss won, another bat first, on a pitch that looked like it might have a little life in it for the bowlers early on. Irv and Keeran endured what they described as a torrid opening spell from Wickham Park’s testing attack, 27 on the board before Keeran fell in the 7th over, disproving the theory, despite one initially successful experiment, that ’nobody is ever out at this level caught in the slips’. Returning hero Richie, playing his first (and last) league game of the season went in to join Irv, and these two did a sound job of seeing out the threat, taking the score onto 68 before Richie went for 14. Hammer joined Irv, who by this stage looked like he was about to pass out, and with a half-dead skipper and an elderly partner, the time came to rotate the strike, taking singles and turning ones into twos. Fortunately (for both batsmen), the drinks interval arrived and with the score on 99 for 2 off 20, a platform was being built. Hammer hammered a few after drinks, scooting along to 50 before his soft dismissal, with the score on 139 from 24, brought the stylish Reyhan to the middle. Looking fluid as always, Reyhan had little trouble finding boundaries galore in his cameo of 28. Rikin was next to join Irv ‘Anchorman’ Turner. Sadly, Irv, by now resembling the undead, ran out of steam and left proceedings following an ugly, skied slash with the team on 198 after an invaluable contribution of 88. The final 6 overs saw us rack up another 40, with Rikin’s 17, and Conor’s 4 preceding an excellent 8th wicket partnership between Vitlesh (11*) and Vikram (10) only stopped by a run out off the last ball of the innings. There’s nothing quite like an easy run rate calculation – 240 off 40 was a decent score and would take some getting from what we knew to be a dangerous Wickham Park batting line-up.
They did not start well. Buoyed by another long-lost returner – the mighty Suly, our opening attack (Suly’s pace at one end and Conor’s guile at the other) began a (rare for this season) period of sustained dominance. Conor got the first (caught Keeran at long on), then Suly snaffled the second (juggled by Conor at point). 10 for 2 off 5 became 11 for 3 off 6 as Jon leapt (yes, both feet were off the ground simultaneously) at short cover to take a second for Conor. A period of quiet consolidation saw Wickham Park move on to 44 for 3 off 14, as Suly made way for Jon. But it was Conor who broke this stand bowling Wickham Park’s number 4 with a snorter that turned and bounced viciously, taking the top of off. Conor took his fourth in his final over thanks to smart slip catch from Hammer, leaving him with astounding figures of 9-4-14-4. At drinks, Wickham Park were 64 for 5, needing 176 off the last 20 with just 5 wickets in hand. On reflection, we may have, at that point, both figuratively and literally chosen to simply sit back and wait for the win. However, I will talk you through the madness that followed. The sixth wicket pair took the score along to 104 off 25….some punishment meted out to Jon and Vitlesh, but our seated skipper rung the changes, and the returning Suly did the business – Irv rising from his throne to dash in and take a good catch (mainly with his belly). Next over saw Vik dismiss Wickham Park’s dangerous number 6 with a catch by Hammer, and it seemed like sanity was restored. By over 30, they were 126 for 8 thanks to a good catch by Richie off Jon – 114 to win off the last 10 with only 9, 10 and 11 to bat. It was so in the bag that Conor now left to attend a prior engagement.
Wickham Park’s number 9 didn’t look up to much to begin with. However, he proved adept at stepping across his stumps and whacking it over mid-wicket. Something he did over, and over, and over again. With Suly bowled out (9-1-30-2), it was mainly left to the poor, unfortunate Keeran, Vitlesh and Vik to absorb the carnage into their figures – all the more impressive therefore that Vik’s 6 overs went for ‘just’ 44. We shall not report figures for Vitlesh and Keeran. By the end of the 35th, Wickham Park had 171 for 9 (ct Doyle b K Rajendran). Surely their last wicket pair couldn’t get 70 off 5. Fast forward to the final over. Just 10 to win, number 9 (with 85 off 34 balls) on strike, and 2021 Player of the Season and nutritional guru Rikin with ball in hand. A dot, a two and a dot showed Rikin’s nerves of steel before the eruption of joy (or relief) as Rikin clean bowled him sealing a narrower victory than any of us could have imagined. Had we not been so knackered/injured/emotionally distraught, we would have carried him on our shoulders from the pitch. As it was, we staggered off, greeted by the full 10 digits of Nick Smith (apparently that was quite a close-run thing in A&E on Wednesday night), basking in the afterglow of a win, against a decent opposition, played in good spirit and bolstering out meagre points total by 20 points. There was even time to hear that the mighty 2s had won by a wider margin than we’d managed despite only posting 85 all out – fantastic bowling effort – we look forward to playing on the same track next week!

An excellent first 70 overs, a ridiculous last 9.3, so overall a good day out for OE’s!

MOM – nominations for Rikin and Irv, but (somewhat controversially – Vik nearly stormed off) MOM went to Conor
DOD – nominations for Conor and Rikin, but the winner was Reyhan
Mappy Magic Finger – WP’s Nelson
Maidstone moment – Irv – seated skippering from the boundary
Parikh Positive Race Relations award to Suly
Sports Direct Sustained Period of Slight Squeeze to: Conor, Suly, Jon and Keeran for the first 20 overs of WP’s innings
Champagne Moment – Rikin for his 10th ball of the game
Hammer Super Supporter – Nick Smith (wounded hero)