James Neale's Sunday 2nd XI secured a pleasing win against Leamington at HQ on Sunday.
Opting to bowl first on a firm, dry track, Dobber dispensed with the Churchillian oratory in favour of a more familiar "stats-based" team talk which included a bewildering array of run rates and targets (the gist, I think, being that if we scored more runs than them, this being a Sunday, we would win).
The most pleasing aspect of the game was the way that Olton fought back from adversity on several occasions, the game swinging to and fro as first batsmen and then bowlers gained the upper hand.
All of Olton's bowlers fought back against some selective hitting (Paver in particular recovering from a disastrous start to slow down Leamington's main run scorers), and after an early rush of runs, a degree of control was gained which was never really lost. The fielding was tight, and the boundaries dried up altogether as Dobber marshalled the field expertly, with the drinks break intervening - as predicted - to bring a flurry of wickets. Daniel Neale was the pick of the attack with 3 for 40, while Dobber and Dave Pullin kept a lid on the scoring right to the end of the innings.
Opening the batting for Olton in reply to Leam's 198, Ali Welch and Drive-in battled hard to establish a solid platform (wickets in hand being another of James's key stats) against some accurate bowling. With the score lagging behind the run rate, James Neale, with support first from Tim Joiner and, in a brief and occasionally lively cameo, Dom Wilkinson, took the initiative, driving and pulling aggressively to put the bowlers off their length and spread the field. Once that had been achieved, a rate of at least 6 an over was possible, and when James was joined by brother Dan the win looked on.
James almost blotted his copybook by holing out to a neat catch in the gloom at long off by one of Leam's many youngsters with just six required - had he noticed that Dan was on 48 not out, and that a six would deprive his brother of the chance of a 50? Surely not. Dan was unperturbed, however, and struck the winning runs to end a fine personal performance with a well-deserved undefeated half century, Olton winning by four wickets with two overs to spare.
Honourable mentions are due to Dominic Wilkinson for the scary shorts, muscular entourage and dubious banter; to Ali Welch for his somewhat more educated style of banter from behind the stumps; to Windy Miller for spotting that Leam had fewer than the required number of fielders within the ring, and calling a no ball that drew an incredulous response from the opposition captain; and to Dobber for engineering an excellent win against a strong side. |