After a couple of weekends without completing a league match, via Crown Tavs conceding at the end of May and the rain curtailing the match vs Hartley Wintney last weekend, the 3s returned to action in glorious sunshine at Long Sutton to host St Marys CC. Going into the game, there was much talk of St Marys’ strong batting line up and that this game was likely to be our toughest challenge yet, with it being 2nd vs 3rd in the league table. In spite of this, we were confident in our abilities and after delivering a rousing team talk, the skipper continued his 100% home record with the toss, and chose to bat first on what looked to be a great wicket.

1st Innings

Charlie T & Greg P strode to the middle to open up for the O’s - from the off it was clear why St Marys were right up the table with us. Some incredibly tight bowling, wicket to wicket, meant they gave nothing away. Greg did get the scoreboard up and running with a nice clip through the legside for four, however after a series of dot balls, Greg (4) was unfortunate to chop on as he looked to guide the ball into the offside. Lizo joined CT in the middle, and despite their best efforts, were quickly pinned down by both the tight bowling, and the superb ground fielding of the oppo - the longish outfield didn’t help proceedings, but both batters were limited to a handful of singles despite good intent. CT flashed a cut over the slip cordon to the fence, whilst Lizo bisected a coupled of gaps on the offside to tick over, but the oppo still restricted the scoring, with some excellent diving stops in the ring.

St Marys changed their opening bowling bringing off spin (Vickery) into the game fairly early on - with some turn on offer, and the pressure building, you felt something was going to happen. A lovely slog sweep for four from Lizo looked to have broke the shackles but again the oppo squeezed - Lizo (13) tried to repeat the dose a couple of overs later but was bowled, leaving the 3s 37-2 from 14.3 overs. This brought Dan Warna to the crease, promoted up the order in an attempt to reverse the pressure - two balls later and Dan deposited the off spinner for a one-bounce four over mid-off, a trademark shot, and we thought we were back on track. Alas unfortunately, it was rather the opposite - Charlie (19) slashed at a rare wide delivery but could only find gully, which brought the skipper to the middle. Safi had a larger than usual fan club, with a mixture of cousins, nieces, aunts & uncles all watching in expectation of a close game and a skippers knock. Three balls later, Safi hit a straight drive back at the bowler, who got a hand to a very tough, low chance, only for the ball to ricochet straight onto the stumps at the non-strikers end. Daniel’s bat was in the air, and he was out - rotten luck. It was at that moment where you might start thinking that it wasn’t going to be our day (43-4 - 16 overs).

It was Vice-Captain and Captain out in the middle to try to rescue a difficult situation - knowing we still had 20+ overs to bat, both Dave and Safi were patient and tried to wait for anything loose but not much was coming. Dave hit a signature wristy flick off the off spinner Vickery, just over midwicket who was two-thirds to the boundary, before guiding another to the third man fence. Unfortunately the offie had the last laugh, firing in a quicker delivery that spun through between Dave’s (8) bat and pad - 52-5. Safi finally got a couple out of the middle, driving through his favoured mid on to midwicket area for a pair of boundaries, as he was joined at the crease by Gisele. Both batters traded boundaries as the runs started to flow, with Gisele playing two glorious shots, a slog sweep to the midwicket boundary, before unfurling a powerful cover drive for another four. Unfortunately Gisele (8) drove the next ball straight back to the bowler Vickery who took a smart catch on the very last ball of his fantastic spell (3-25), leaving the O’s reeling at 74-6.

Safi kept the scoreboard moving with another straight drive for four, teased the fielders with a top edge that somehow landed between two, and struck a powerful pull shot to the square leg fence. The skipper (24) didn’t last too much longer, bowled by a jaffa that clipped the top of off stump, much to the disappointment of his watching family - he was quickly followed by Matty Hall (0) who chopped on from a booming in swinger from the change bowler. At 84-8, the O’s were desperately trying to get to three figures to rescue some batting points, with Paul and Rory at the crease - it was Rory’s first senior cricket innings and he immediately looked at home. St Marys had brought back on their opening bowler to try to clean up the tail but Rory had other ideas, carting the ball to all parts, peppering the cover, straight and midwicket boundaries in the space of 5 balls, with some cracking shots and showing real bravery. Those 16 runs took the O’s to three figures, and Paul joined in the fun with a Downham special to cow corner.

Rory’s (17) fun unfortunately came to an end as he was through the shot early and chipped it to the man on the 45. Paul (12*) found the fence one more time, before Josh (3) was bowled by another booming in swinger, with the O’s bowled out for 118 inside 33 overs.

At the halfway stage, we knew we were up against it - both teams tucked into some lovely teas prepared by Lizo and Josh (thanks both!).

2nd Innings

After rousing team talk no.2 of the day, the O’s went out into the field knowing that 10 wickets would be needed to win this game. Dave (0-13) took the new ball and whilst he found some swing, didn’t quite find his radar, as the St Marys got off to a bit of a flier. Paul shared the new ball and and found stern resistance by opener Hawkins who certainly favoured the cover drive, as the oppo set about chasing this target in double quick time. Matty Hall (0-17) joined the attack and was tidy to start, but it was Paul (1-20) who found the breakthrough, pinning opener Lee plumb in front (21-1). Opener Hawkins continued to pepper the cover boundary, in spite of multiple catchers being placed in that region, the ball just seemed to narrowly evade all of them, whilst extras unfortunately accelerated the scoring rate.

With the oppo rattling along, we rung the changes in an attempt to find a cluster of wickets - Rory immediately found some turn and bounce, with Dan showing off some serious hands behind the sticks off all bowlers. Following Rory was Gisele, who struck second ball, finding the edge of the no.3 bat with a beauty, and Dan taking a great low catch (56-2). In walked the St Marys no.4, who we knew to have scored 198* earlier this season - I know right. Gisele very nearly got him first ball as he just got his bat down to one that nipped back in.

The oppo gun bat did however show his quality, making the most of the very short straight boundaries, hitting a series of shots into the field off perfectly good, flighted deliveries from Rory (0-25), whilst Gisele (1-20) too wasn’t immune to the hitting in her second over, with a mixture of good shots and lacklustre fielding from the skipper (who was trying to hide himself in the field but the ball typically followed him, including one to the unmentionables) leading to the continued acceleration as St Marys hurtled towards the target. The game finished as Josh (0-24) couldn’t quite find his radar and when he did, was punished by the no.4, with St Marys chasing down our total within 14 overs.

A crushing defeat serves as a reminder that this season will have its challenges - a perfect start to the season was never going to last, and St Marys were the better side with ball, bat and in the field, so thoroughly deserved to win. No excuses, a good pitch, we just didn't reach our usual levels, both as individuals and as a collective. St Marys are good bunch of lads too, helping out with collecting the flags and the washing up - they will be right up there this season. We will look forward to the reverse fixture to try to exact some revenge! Whilst this is maybe a sign that the honeymoon period is over, I am proud that the atmosphere and culture remained positive in spite of a heavy defeat - we win together, we lose together.

No team becomes poor overnight with one below par performance - we have shown some real quality throughout the early part of the season and have 11 more opportunities to show why we are capable to compete for the top spots in this division. Luckily for us, we have just under a week until we can get back out on the field and get back to putting our best foot forward, as we travel to Ramsdell next Saturday.