Warborough & Shillingford

Sun 29 May                     Warborough & Shillingford                 Lost by 2 wkts

    We    203/9 in 49 overs     (Shahzeb 85, Beg 31, Oppe 20, D.Leach 4/73)

    They 204/8 in 42.5 overs  (Bradshaw 57, J.Tilley 40, Nayar 4/50, Shanker 2/26)

A close game in this traditional all-day fixture at this pretty Oxfordshire village ground.  San won the toss and chose to bat first, but soon rued his decision as we crawled to 9 runs in 7 overs before Amit Shanker was caught behind.  The tempo did not pick up and wickets began to tumble, Gabriel and Rohan falling cheaply.  Neeraj was fourth out at 24/4 having edged his way to 6 in 43 balls.  Although dampish, was the wicket that bad?  San looked a million dollars as he stroked his way around, but then unaccountably missed a straight(ish) ball and was undone by an lbw decision.  Shahzeb and Mark Oppe began to repair the damage and KCC went to lunch (under the oak tree, of course) at a precarious 87/5.  Once Mark and Tabby fell Shahzeb finally found his rhythm, reaching his 50 with the first six of the innings then racing to 85 in 11 balls before holing out.  The 71 run stand with Mirza Beg brought respectability enabling San to declare with prospects.

But despite an early wicket the hoped-for crunch into Warborough’s top order in the 12 overs before tea did not materialise.  Bradshaw and James Tilley provided a solid foundation and looked to be cruising to an easy win until Neeraj Nayar stopped them in their tracks with his stuttering off-zeaters, bagging 4 wickets in all.  Suddenly the game was wide open.  Two good catches in the deep off Amit and we needed 2 more wickets with 15 to defend. Well, actually only 1 wicket as their 11th man had left early.  But Fitchett played it cool and saw Warborough home with 4 overs to spare.