On a sunny Wednesday evening, OE’s T20 team came from the four corners of London to Premier League Bexley’s picturesque home ground almost all in time for a 6 o’clock start. With one of the two independent umpires decreeing that no live feed should be shown as he was not supposed to be there (he did not reveal details), OE’s chose to lose the toss and field first. A fantastic first over from James Smith left Bexley looking vulnerable at 3-1 following Hammer’s catch at mid-off. Sadly, sensible batting from the 2nd wicket partnership allowed a steady acceleration as both Tushar and Atlas could not secure a further breakthrough. At last, Irvine decided to give Reyhan a bowl and that did the trick nicely, with his first over claiming our second wicket thanks to an excellent boundary catch from Tushar. With the powerplay over and Bexley on a solid 45 for 2 off 6, it was time to turn to spin. Jon’s first two overs went for just 5 a piece, while Jonny was less fortunate in going for 17 off his solitary over as Bexley’s 3rd wicket pair started to find the shorter boundary with regularity. That partnership was worth probably a match winning 77 and despite a tight first over from Irv (6 off it), Bexley’s run rate was looking sound as Reyhan finally made the breakthrough, courtesy of Smithy’s first excellent boundary catch. What followed was a procession of ten run partnerships with OE’s re-exerting a level of control through the bowling of Reyhan (4 for 24), Swaroop (1-22 off 3), Atlas (1-23 off 3) and Smithy (2 for 25 off 3). Smithy took 3 fine high boundary catches, with another from Irv and Bexley ended on 169 – a tough target, but if all went well, we stood a chance.
All did not go well.
Jon went without scoring in the first over, but Jonny and Atlas built effectively through the next few overs, taking the score to 26 in the fourth before Atlas fell for 7. Jonny’s dismissal for 10, followed shortly afterwards by Hammer’s departure after a poor 1 meant that Irv came out to join Reyhan. 33 for 4 with the powerplay over, not really the awesome start that would have put us in pole position. These two put on an excellent 58 in just 8 overs, with a mix of great shots, dodgy edges and mis-timed reverse sweeps and ramps. Despite an excellent and classy (well, some classy slogs) from Adam, the rest of our innings struggled to develop any momentum, adding 23 off the final 5 and a bit overs.
For an ad hoc OEs team against a stable and strong Bexley team, the performance was solid, and though we rarely looked like pulling off the upset that was so near in the first game at College Meadow, the defeat was not so bad as to ruin our net run rate and leaves us, with 1 or 2 (ask Beckenham) games remaining our chances of qualifying for finals day remain in the balance.
Details of those 1 (or 2) games will be posted once they are clearer.