After weeks of rain and cancelations during preseason, the sun was out at King Street as the 2s began their league season against Oakley 1s. After some competitive stump game to warm-up, the skipper won the toss and chose to bat.

Charlie Russell & Max G opened up against some decent bowling, Max in particular enjoying the banter out in the middle with the opening bowler. Max departed for 12, bring Scott Collins out at 3, and the lefties set about building a foundation with C Russ dealing almost exclusively in boundaries. Russell pasted 50 then departed soon after, with the oppo spinners being tricky to get away on a slow wicket. Phil (2) followed soon after, bringing the skipper out at 5. At 124-3 after 30, the tempo was lifted despite Jamie (9), Liam M (3) and Chris D (12) all coming and going while Dot Collins moved past 50 himself. Eventually Scott was dismissed for 63, and the O’s were dismissed for 212 with extras 3rd top scoring with 43.

After a quick tea, Dave R (0-44) and Ollie T (1-41) opened up, with OT taking a wicket with his opening delivery. C Russ (2-14) and Becky (1-32) came on and slowed Oakley up, with tight bowling placing them in a similar position to we were during our innings. Will K came on after 20 overs and created 3 quick wickets, with two good catches in the deep from Phil at long-on and Liam at deep square along with a runout dismissing both set batsmen and turning the game in our favour – Oakley 111-5 at drinks. WK continued his excellence, picking up 3 more to finish with 5-35 and his first senior 5-fer – congrats to Will! Russell returned and took a worldie c&b (check out the highlights coming soon!), and Becky closed the innings to give the O’s a 34 run win.

Great to start the year off with W, showing plenty of grit and effort to grind out a tricky win collecting 23 points. Thanks to all the support from the boundary, great to see so many people out enjoying the sun and the club. We go to Colden Common next week, looking to build upon this start.