Scorecard

Olney Town Cricket Club Sunday Casuals/League v MK Badshahs on Sun 01 Aug 2010 at 2pm
Olney Town Cricket Club Won by 7 wickets

Match report In an important game Olney Town came through in a tense and much closer game than the score suggests. Skipper Gratters won what was probably a crucial toss and inserted the opposition. A decision that looked to be the right one as the oppo skip slumped when that decision was taken.

Badshahs made a slowish start but picked up rapidly once their 2 openers were gone and raced to 60-2 off of 12 overs. Darkins first 2 overs were 'interesting being despatched for 21 causing another outbreak of nappy fever for the skipper and by now the field being moved ball to ball in an effort to stem free scoring batsmen, but with the skip keeping faith with the help of a few well disguised swear words, RD got his head down and came through with 25-4 from his following 6 overs.
However Swingler made the crucial breakthrough removing the dangerous Gurfran courtesy of a catch from C Berrill and then shortly after rattled the stumps of A Iqbal the other end who was looking too comfortable for our liking. At 101-4 the game was finely balanced but determined to stay on top Darkins and Swingler bowled very tightly to remove the outstanding 6 wickets for just 20 runs incl a great over the shoulder catch from Cadigan. MK Badshahs finishing on 121 all out but yet again a daft amount of extras (24) were given away !!!!!!!

With Mo Gurfran in the Badshahs bowling line up things certainly weren't going to be taken for granted and off the very first ball Annie Oakley edged a regulation catch to first slip who clearly didn't fancy the pace either and watched it shoot to the boundary. With the left armer bowling quicker than anything seen this season the openers of Oakley and Smail struggled galliantly to hold on before Oakleys luck ran out and another 2 edged 4's later which threatened to blow a fuse in the bowlers head, was caught for 14. Young Smail after weeks of bleating for a higher order batting berth was honoured with the No 2 spot but was sadly despatched playing all round a straight one for 3! Runs are clearly easier to come by on Saturdays !!

Mr 'Not Out' Darkins came to the crease and also took a short while to get to grips with Gurfran's pace edging a couple to what were now 4 slips, 2 gullys and a point who continued to spill chance after chance. He was joined by a hungover (fine!) Callum Berrill who proceeded to thump 39 off of 26 balls incl the obligatory couple of 6's into Oxfordshire before holing out in deep mid-on territory. With the score on 88-3 and probably the best bowling attack down the rec for some time there was clearly still a lot of work to be done but the job was completed by Paul Gallyot (29no) who steered the ship home with Darkins 34no.

The result might say won by 7 wickets but this was a very hard fought victory against a side only beaten twice this season.

Highlights - 8 of the oppo out by being caught sums up how tight the fielding has been this year (shame about the wides !!), wee Smail behind the stumps continues his great start to his wicketkeeping career and now takes his victims count to 15, Berrills runfest breaks through the 500 barrier and Darkins looks to have one hand on the bowling award with 22.

28 more points (incl our 3 weekly points due to the OTCC Sunday youth players policy ie we play with at least 4 or more under 18 players which no other league side can currently match)

4 more games to go !

MK Badshahs Batting
121 for 10
Player name Runs
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Olney Town Cricket Club Sunday Casuals/League Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Oli Knowles6.0122122.003.67
Callum Berrill6.0324124.004.00
Rory Darkins8.0046411.505.75
Brad Swingler7.102646.503.63

Olney Town Cricket Club Sunday Casuals/League Batting
125 for 3
Player Name RunsCatchesStumpingsRun outs
Steve Oakley Caught  14
Christian Smail Bowled  3 2
Rory Darkins Not Out  34
Callum Berrill Caught  39 1
Paul Gallyot Not Out  29
Simon Gratland  
Dave Berrill   1
Brad Swingler   1
John Cadigan   1
Oli Knowles   2
Richard Barrass  

MK Badshahs Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.