The third weekend of the league season saw the 3s return home to Long Sutton to host Old Basing. The 3s were looking to make it three wins on the bounce in the league, against an Old Basing side that we hadn’t actually played in 3 years due to rain. We welcomed Vice-Captain Dave Riches to the side for the first time this season, after an unfortunate injury saw him miss the early part of the season. Alfie & Rory also returned, having both performed well in our first home game vs Donnington.

The pre match preview of the Old Basing side identified their star player Reuben Singh, who had taken a 5-bag last week - our Corbyn knew him well from District cricket, and seemingly had a magic plan to get him out!

A busy pre game morning for the team saw the skipper on a first aid course, the vice-skipper repairing the nets at King Street, Hursty rolling the pitch at 8:30am, and some high quality tea prep from Ed Terry & Ruth Dunn (whilst Rory was playing a Football cup final!). With all that going on, one would think pre-match jobs would be hectic, but the skipper turned up to Long Sutton at 12:10 to see that the Downhams, Alf & Greg had done 90% of the jobs already! Thank you all for your efforts!

The skipper won the toss and chose to bat in glorious sunshine - all seemed to be going smoothly until we realised Henry had shot back home to retrieve his spikes (he tried to pin the blame on his dad for that one), with merely 20 mins before first ball. Luckily H made it back in time, and was ready to open up with Greg.

1st Innings

Henry was quickly into the action, flicking the first two balls sweetly off his pads, for two, then 4, to get the scoreboard moving. Greg followed with a lovely squatted pull shot for 4, as the early signs indicated a good pitch and quicker outfield than a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately Greg (6) fell soon after, to a jaffa that nipped up the hill and took the off stump bail. It was father-son time, as Liam strode to the crease to join Henry, and Lizo got going with a cracking cover drive for 4.

Not to be outdone by his dad, Henry, seemingly out of nowhere, played a glorious lofted off drive for 6 that made a beautiful sound off the bat. He hit it so well that the ball disappeared into the nettles (Greg had kindly trimmed back the nettles by a good 2 meters, but even that didn’t help here) - after the oppo desperately tried to avoid using one of their spare balls, some 9 minutes later, play resumed with a spare. An armed O’s search party would eventually find the original ball - it wouldn’t be the last time they’d be put to work!

The O’s were ticking along nicely, but it was time for the much hyped Old Basing star boy Reuben to join the attack with his leg-spin. Henry greeted his first delivery with a dismissive swat to the midwicket boundary (insert another delay for the ball search party), and repeated the dose, this time squarer, later in the over. Reuben did however strike as Lizo (11) was adjudged LBW to one that didn’t turn - it’s suggested that ‘Ultra-Edge’ may have saved Lizo if DRS was in play, but sadly this wasn’t the case (only Frogbox)!

The skipper joined Henry in the middle, looking to follow up his 94 from last week. Safi was facing Reuben’s leg spin and got off the mark with a slog sweep to the boundary. The young leggie was bowling nicely and mixed up his pace - unfortunately the skipper did not last much longer, as a quite horrible hoick left his stumps wide open. Safi (4) trudged back to the pavilion, pondering his lack of pre-match net, and remembering that the shot was on frog box for all to see. Henry (35), who had batted nicely to this point, followed his skipper back the following over, top edging a flick off his pads to the man at 45. The O’s had slipped from 54-1, to 66-4 (16.1 overs), and were in desperate need of a rebuild.

Enter Dave & Alfie - both returning to the side, were keen to make the most of the opportunity to bat for a long time and build a competitive score for the team. Both got off the mark with trademark boundaries - Dave pulling a short delivery to the square leg fence, whilst Alf punched one through the covers. Both were positive and amongst some good bowling, punished anything remotely loose and/or short.

Old Basing were a friendly bunch but were regular encouraged by a very enthusiastic youngster who seemed to have every single school-like cricket sledge cliche in his back pocket (think “send those bails to Wales”). He proceeded to share them with the world at every opportunity, especially if the edge was found or the ball beat the bat - whilst most people couldn’t help but smile as he reeled these off, even his teammates found it, and I quote ‘flat out irritating’. We’ll come back to this.

Spurred on by that ‘encouragement’, Dave and Alf continued to build, with Dave playing a couple of lovely back foot punches/cuts off the spin of Reuben, as the O’s reached 93-4 at drinks. As mentioned in Match Report 1, Alf is quick between the wickets, and it’s probably fair to say Dave is not as quick as Alfie. Dave played a nice sweep shot into a gap, and jogged back for 2 - Alfie was keen to keep running, and ran pretty much a whole third run, before politely asking saying ‘If you want Dave’, which was quickly responded with ’no thanks’ from the vice-skipper, to chuckles amongst all watching. Alf jogged back, and effectively ran four but the scorebook only read two.

In big partnerships you always need a bit of luck (the skipper very much speaking from experience - see last week) - Alfie got his as the Old Basing skipper joined the attack. Changing from off-spin in his first over to gentle out-swingers, Alfie chipped one back to the bowler but thankfully the chance was shelled. To rub salt into the wound, Dave hit two glorious pick-up shots in the same over, firstly to the mid-wicket boundary, and then a seriously flat six to square leg that required Rory to hop over into the school playground to retrieve it. Just a couple of overs later, it was Dave’s turn to get a second life - the OB skipper was bowling nicely, and Dave drove one straight to cover who juggled the ball before spilling it onto the turf. Both Dave & Alf were dropped in the 20s, and were keen to make the most of their chances.

The oppo continued to bowl well, beating the bat on numerous occasions, however Dave and Alf started to motor, making the oppo pay for those missed chances. Dave found the square leg fence again, before dancing down the pitch and crunching the ball to the extra cover boundary. Dave soon reached his 50 with a clip into the legside, and Alf followed him soon after, with a brace of his own pull shots to the boundary. Both batted with superb intent and got our innings back on track and in a great position for a big finish.

Alf (52 - 50 balls, 9x 4s) eventually fell trying to hit over the top, bringing to an end a brilliant 106 run partnership (174-5, 32.5 overs). Specialist finisher Ed Terry marched to the crease, with the oppo not realising what they had unleashed with just 7 overs to go. Dave played yet another glorious pick up shot over mid-wicket (my favourite of the lot), to remind Ed that he’s not the only one with some power in the team! Dave finally was dismissed for 65 (70 balls, 10x 4s & 1x 6), trying to hit the ball back to Cape Town.

Ed T was joined by Paul D, the latter first appearance with the bat this season. In a day of trademark shots, Paul found the midwicket fence, before playing the lesser-spotted Downham cover drive! The pair traded boundaries, as Paul became the 3rd 3s batter this season to be hit straight in the unmentionables - plenty of looks to our vice-captain as Paul doubled over in pain. As Paul was recovering, he was swinging as hard has he could to find the fence - a couple of misses led to the young lad (mentioned earlier) piping up from cow corner with ‘more swings than a rusty gate’ and ‘he needs better wifi because he can’t connect’. Paul duly carted the next ball to cow corner for 4 - I think the world could see Paul’s smile after that one.

The chirp kept coming, with the lad telling Ed Terry that ’the instructions were on the back of the bat’. Rookie mistake - Ed let his bat do the talking absolutely dispatching 5 of the last 8 balls to the fence. The final over went for 19, as Ed sent a 6 into orbit (the young fella said ‘a good bat would go twice’), before finding the midwicket, straight, cover and third man boundaries. Ed went 4 times. The O’s finished on 238-6, with Ed (38*) and Paul (13*) providing the perfect finish to the innings.

A strong score at the halfway stage, but the pitch played well, so the O’s knew that we’d have to work hard to get the win. The 3s fan club grew in size this week - following Emma & Lenice’s trip to Ashford Hill last week, they were joined at Long Sutton by Ruth (Rory’s mum), Rachel (Ed’s Mum) and Shehla (Safi’s Mum). They all helped out to get the lovely tea spread out for all to enjoy.

2nd Innings

Into Old Basing’s reply, and Dave took the new ball on his return to the side, and was immediately on the money, beating the outside edge on multiple occasions. The metronomic Paul Downham shared the new nut and continued his form on from the first two league games, giving nothing away. It’s difficult to do justice how well both bowled with the new ball without reward - it was just on the money. Alf and Henry were superb at mid off and cover respectively, as the Old Basing openers just couldn’t get away - 23-0 after 10 overs, and the O’s were very much in control, but without that elusive breakthrough.

Ed T (0-43) & Corbyn followed the openers, as the oppo batters looked to try to reverse the pressure. Latching onto any loose deliveries, both batters finding the cover point and mid wicket boundaries. Good batters will absorb the pressure, then cash in given the opportunity and the oppo batters certainly did that, finding the fence with regularity and even taking the 17th over for 20. It was however our young gun Corbyn who finally made the breakthrough just a few balls later - after seeing one pop off a length, Corbyn found the same spot again, as the batter lifted the ball into the offside, with Alf taking a smart catch coming round at mid off (88-1). A second league wicket for the youngster, and he his next target was district compatriot Reuben.

Hursty & Rory came on just prior to drinks as the O’s looked to get a second breakthrough. Unfortunately the runs kept flowing as the remaining opener took a liking to the change, finding both the midwicket and third man fence. After a string of boundaries, and some extra fielders out on the fence, Hursty found a beauty to castle the opener, leaving Old Basing 123-2 after 23 overs, with the game right in the balance. After that crucial wicket, both Hursty (1-34) and Rory settled into their rhythms nicely, as the O’s wrestled back control of the game. Consecutive tight overs led to the oppo No.4 playing the big shot - Paul D made excellent ground from long on to take a great catch, giving Rory his first wicket of the day.

Rory again bowled with lovely flight and shape, beating the bat and making always making the batter think. Both Rory and Hursty had recovered after tough starts, and had brought on the squeeze, as additional boundary riders turned 4s into 1s/2s, leaving Old Basing at 147-3 after 30 overs - the O’s back In the ascendency, with the required run rate now up to 9.2 per over.

Corbyn returned and struck again, as the No.5 bat flicked the ball off the pads, but didn’t see Paul at backward square leg, who gratefully pouched another catch off his boy, bringing another big celebration from the young man - two in two weeks, Bowled C Downham, Caught P Downham (155-4). As the oppo attacked to try to stay with the ever climbing rate, the did find the odd boundary, particularly young Reuben who stood firm for Old Basing and played some lovely shots throughout his innings. Both of our youngsters bowled nicely in this crucial period - a great test of their metal.

As Rory entered his final over, Alfie almost took a blinder at cow corner, diving low to his left but the ball just popped out - Rory (2-40) did strike with the final ball of his spell, trapping the No.6 LBW, as he tried an audacious reverse sweep (177-5). That brought to the crease the rather chirpy young lad from the 1st innings, to plenty of noise from the O’s, recycling some of his material (‘order that duck from the menu’ my personal favourite from H).

Corbyn (2-49) bowled the 35th over and just went for 1, before his dad Paul returned to the attack. Paul trapped Reuben in front of all three stumps first up, getting his first, before having the chance to bowl at his arch nemesis from earlier in the day. It only took one ball as Paul was absolutely on the money, pegging back the lad’s off stump. We all enjoyed that one. With some excellent bowling, boundary riders and good fielding, the O’s had built pressure and reduced the oppo from 177-4 to 179-7 in no time. Paul taking two wickets and only conceding one run from the 36th over - brilliant. Corbyn almost had a third in this final over with an edge just evading Greg behind the sticks (another game of zero byes for Greg).

As the game made its way towards its conclusion, Old Basing swung at everything, as Dave (0-19) bowled the final over from the tennis court end. Paul (3-31) picked up his third in the final over, bowling the oppo skipper as the O’s earned another bowling point, with Old Basing finishing on 216-8 from their 40 overs.

We were made to work hard, in a game that ebbed and flowed, but came out deserved winners by 22 runs. In the end another good batting display with H laying the platform, before a brilliant partnership from Alf and Dave, and fireworks from Ed & Paul to finish. We won two of the 3 phases of the 2nd innings with the ball, bowling superbly up front and at the back end.

POTM: Paul Downham - 8-1-31-3, with two crucial catches and a handy 13* at the end of our innings. Paul has it on a string and is bowling beautifully. Long may it continue.

Another good win but this league is proving extremely competitive, and next up we travel to AWE Tadley, one of the form sides in the league. A stern test but we should be right up for it.