200 runs and 10 wickets in 79.4 overs- ends in Thriller!

Oxted vs Maladroits

• Bobby Gorgeous Lees reports
• May 20th 2012
• Master Park, Oxted

The Maladroits were looking forward to getting their first completed game under their belts after being rained off the week before against their landlords at Sheen Park. The Maladroits were up against a young Oxted side in what proved to be an even contest, but unfortunately the Maladroits came up short after Oxted chased down the low total, albeit with 9 wickets down.  The Maladroits chose to bat first on what appeared to be a seam friendly surface, and this proved to be the case as the opening bowler sent Nails back to the hutch in the opening over without troubling the scorers.

Lees and Retter tried to repair the damage, but an excellent opening spell from the Oxted opening bowlers made this tricky.  Retter especially enjoyed more than his fair share of luck and scoring proved troublesome.  Lees was the next to go bowled in similar fashion to Nails by the tall opening bowler.  The Maladroits were rocking further in the same over as JC came and went for a duck.  The Maladroit innings did not look healthy at this stage with the visitors reduced to 34-3.  Matters got worse when the opening bowler picked up his fourth wicket in his next over as Retter departed for a hard earned 22.

The introduction of spin did nothing to arrest the Maladroit slide as both Martin and Drought also departed for low scores and at 49-6 the Maladroit innings was in danger of imploding. Lowis and Brewer began to rebuild the innings, with Glen in particular paying some lovely shots and finally the scoreboard began to tick over at something slightly healthier than a snail’s pace.   Together Glen and Boozer put on 41 for the 7^th wicket to give the score a semblance of respectability.  Boozer was out LBW for 12, but a solid 11 not out from Matty enabled Glen to push the score on until he was eventually caught for an impressive 34.  Both Gumbo and Brendan hung around at the end to give Matty support.

The Maladroits were all out for 105, a score that looked 20 runs light on that pitch.  With tea nothing to write home about, the Maladroits took the field for the Oxted innings hungry for some early success to make a game out of it.  Glen and JC shared the new ball, but it wasn’t until Matty replaced JC that the Maladroits started to make inroads in the Oxted batting line up.  Both bowled well with Matty especially bowling a testing spell that the nippers from Oxted struggled with.

Glen picked up two wickets with Matty claiming the Man of the match award with 4-17 off his allotted 8 overs.  Couple this with some calamitous running between the wickets from the youngsters meant that the game hung in the balance.  Excellent fielding from Brendan and Martin  in particular produced two run outs.  Boozer shuffled his bowlers with Retter looking impressive.  A further wicket was claimed by Lees towards the end, but Oxted snuck home by 1 wicket in an enjoyable game.  The Maladroits simply did not score enough runs batting first to win the game, but the team can take heart  from their excellent fielding performance which almost saw them sneak an improbable victory.