Match Centre

Where to start? What a madcap game of cricket at Thatcham. Ollie captained for the evening but lost the toss with the Roundheads being sent into the field.

The captain opened the bowling with Dex, getting us off to a strong start with an excellent spell of 2-4, ably backed up Dex to get us off to a strong start. Monty and Jack then stepped up to continue the pressure, although we let them off the hook with a few too many no-balls and wides. Iggy and Ro were economical, backed by some good fielding, though we continued to leak those extras, something which would come back to bite late. Iggy was replaced by Henry so he could take the keeping gloves from Eddie and this worked out well as Henry took a couple of wickets whilst keeping the scoring down. Reuben and Eddie then took up the reins and really moved the Roundheads into a strong position with combined figures of 4-7-3, the former troubling the bats with pace and the latter with something akin to spin, with one fantastic piece of keeping from Iggy resulting in a stumping. Nate and Jack rounded out the innings to leave Thatcham on a net score of 235 with 10 wickets being taken.

A strong overall bowling and fielding performance was compromised a little by a total of 41 extras, with the majority coming from no-balls. No prizes for guessing what we might be focusing on in training on Monday. However, this always felt like it should have been enough.

Ro and Monty opened for the Roundheads, but had to face a strong opening bowling attack. Fast, accurate and most definitely older, this was a difficult spell to face and we found ourselves behind the game quite quickly. Sometimes we need to dig in and think about the game situation when facing such bowling. Reuben and Nate came to the crease and unfortunately, the wickets continued to tumble, with good bowling, great catching and superb fielding conspiring against us. Thatcham had no less than 4 direct hits from run outs, and whilst some of our calling / running could have been better, sometimes you just have to recognise the opposition are having a day out. Iggy and Dex were next up and kept things moving with boundaries, but that bowling and fielding continued to trouble us. In all honesty, things were looking a bit bleak as Henry and Jack came to the crease, but good concentration and defensive focus gave Ollie and Eddie a platform for the last 4 overs with 25 needed. Thatcham brought their opening bowlers back on, and what ensued was a brilliant denouement of good, accurate bowling, solid defensive cricket, sensible running (though perhaps a little more would have been good) and strike rotation. Going into the last over and the penultimate ball, we were ahead of the required number, but unfortunately, a superb delivery got through the defences of the otherwise unflappable Ollie, who had an excellent all-round game as captain. With one needed to tie off the last delivery and two needed to win, Eddie was only able to dig out a straight ball and the boys didn’t run, meaning we lost by 1 run. 

Of course, there are plenty of moments we can look back on to say if we’d have done this, or if this had of happened, we would have got up, but Thatcham would have been able to argue the same. I thought the boys equipped themselves well against an older team and with a little more game-sense and focus on some disciplines, they’d have won comfortably. It gives us plenty to look at in training and as Curt said to the boys after the game, we hope they use this disappointment - they could also hear the Thatcham team celebrating loudly in the changing room next door - to fuel them in future fixtures.

Player of the match. Strong all-round contribution from Ollie, good with bat and ball from Dex and excellent bowling from Reuben. Honourable mention to Iggy for stumping and boundaries, but I’m going to give it to Eddie for tight wicket-taking bowling and concentrated defensive effort at the end as we looked to get over the line. If Ollie hadn’t have been bowled off the penultimate ball though…

A bit of a break before the next fixture for the Roundheads at home to West Ilsley, whilst the Cavaliers will travel to Thatcham on Sunday 28th June. Availability requests to follow.