Little Bardfield Village CC vs. Nacton CC 1st XI
Date: 18th May 2024
Venue: The Fortress - Little Bardfield
Toss: Little Bardfield won the toss and chose to bowl
Nacton Innings:
After winning the toss Skipper Rory Hitchcock decided to send Nacton out to bat first. With a wicket that had seen a little rain at the back end of the week and the promise of sunshine coming later in the day this was the wise call but would it secure the Oxslips a second win of the season? Only time would tell.
Sam Burman and James Gray opened for Nacton, they started steadily enough until a Matt Graham delivery saw Gray's bails fly and he left with 11 runs to his name. This early wicket seemed to calm Nacton, who strode on to 95 runs before Matt struck again. Burman suffered the same fate as Gray and left the field with 19 runs.
Not wanting to be shown up by his brother Tom Graham got in on the act. Doing all the work himself he caught and bowled Yash Kumar for the first duck of the day. Nacton were 96-3 and Club President Iain Graham was heard remarking that he'd taught the boys everything he knew.
Mohammad Khan was having an impressive second game for Bardfield, running out Luke Catchpole for 62 runs after a Nacton miscommunication. He also had a fantastic day with ball in hand with 0-14 off his 9 over spell, the only thing missing from his innings was a well deserved wicket.
Bardfield continued working hard in the field as Nacton moved up to 161 runs. Enter Joe Owen, first taking the wicket of Corey Stockwell for 38 runs with a catch from Matt. His next over he dismissed Tom Coleman for 6 and on the following ball took Rohit Kumar for another Nacton duck.
With the away side now on 166-7 Rory smelt blood in the water, bringing himself back into the bowling attack. This paid dividends, as he clean bowlied the 3 remaining batsmen. Marc Robinson went first with Nacton's 3rd duck of the day, he was followed by Joe Harvey for 5 runs and Shiv Charan posted the 4th duck to finish off the innings.
Nacton ended on 180 runs from 41.5 overs.
Little Bardfield Innings:
After a delicious tea (thank you Sandra Hitchcock) the players were pumped up and ready for the second innings. Rory and Matt opened. It was a frustrating start with the visiting side not giving the Oxslip pair much to feed on, with Stockwell bowling 6 successive maidens. Stockwell took the first wicket, Rory being bowled for 2 runs.
Callum Hymas joined Matt briefly in the middle but he was caught by Burman on his second ball for a duck. Daryl Hymas replaced Cal with hopes of forming a partnership to drive the Bardfield total up. Sadly this wasn't to be with Matt being caught by Kumar from a Robisnon delivery…the Oxlips were 23-3 and a little nervy.
Khan and Daryl set about ticking the runs along, until the former was caught off a Charan delivery having added 20 runs to the our total. Joe was up next but Daryl couldn't hang in there with him, he too fell to a Charan ball with 20 runs to his name.
At 64-5 Bardfield needed the middle order to make a stand, Will Slemmings and Joe dutifully obliged and settled things down. However, like all good things it had to come to an end. Will was bowled by Robinson for 13 runs, Joe followed soon after for 38 runs and the Oxslips were 140-7.
With a tight finish looming Tom Graham and Jack Davies went to work but Davies was caught for 5 from a Burman delivery. Stu Noble-Conner hobbled out to the middle with the athletic Hitchcock by his side ready to do some running. He added 3 runs to the total before being bowled out by Lord.
Ewan Slade and Tom now had the pressure on to get Bardfield over the line, 12 runs needed for the win. Ewan did well, blocking out a number of good balls and supporting Tom as he drove the runs up. But sadly when trying to get a cheeky single in they were caught short and Ewan was run out for a duck.
Bardfield ending the innings on 174 all out, Nacton won by 6 runs in what was an exceptionally tight game.
