Skipper Xav led the team out to bowl first in glorious Sunday morning sunshine as OEs continued on the quest to master the art of chasing. Opening with spin turned out to be a masterstroke, as Dan’s offies found the length and turn to hit the stumps or trap batters in front 4 times in 4 overs. Sasha complemented Dan with one of his own to leave OWs 5 wickets down within the first spell.

Bowling change brought Yuvan’s leggies from one end, and with it 3 more wickets, and Xav’s offies brought yet another wicket. A tidy over from Thomas kept the scoring in check as the OWs’ 9th wicket pair kept the scoreboard ticking.

A run out made up the final wickets tally, good collection from keeper Rocco yet again, to leave OEs with a target of 47, a required rate of less than 2 runs per over.

Never underestimate a low total was the takeaway today, as the OEs top order looked to dominate the bowling but missed the ball a little too regularly, resulting in 4 out of the top 5 getting bowled.

Amidst this was a touch of Ashes 2023 drama as Jackson unfortunately did a Jonny Bairstow and walked out of the crease only to find himself run out (credit to Jackson for not protesting the decision one bit, showing more maturity than many members of MCC, the guardians of the laws of the game no less!)

6 down then, and it’s left to the lower middle order to rescue the chase. Yuvan showed admirable patience to hold up one end, with him and his batting partners enjoying many lessons from OWs in gastronomy (“duck on the menu”), woodworking (“shaky bat”), botany (“more leaves than trees”), etc. as the pressure kept mounting.

Yuvan out as the 7th, and it was down to Damian and Owen to see the team home with a handful of shots to get the team out of jail and families home for an early Sunday roast.

Sweet taste of victory for OEs Div 2, the first in three matches.

Players of the match - Dan for 4 wickets and Yuvan for 3 wickets and batting time.