The Originals were left gutted after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on Saturday against Faringdon. Marsh were full of hope after the Charlbury victory and were even happier having won the toss and bowling first on a very green wicket, which soon started to misbehave dramatically when the ball hit the right areas.
Stevie T (12-6-21-0) produced an excellent spell, with no reward for his control and skill, whilst Crouchy bowled well in patches to keep the score down after Faringdon got off to a reasonable start. Tim Thurston played the conditions well for Faringdon to anchor the innings before they looked to push on having kept wickets in hand. Crossy got four wickets from his 10 overs, but Marsh didn’t ever quite gain that control over the opposition with too many four balls for their batsmen to have a go at, as has been the case recently. Despite the pitch conditions, Marsh were delighted to keep Faringdon down to 188 off their 45 overs and looked forward to chasing them down, which we had done in all our victories so far this campaign.
After tea in the sun, Ollie and Joe got us off to a nice steady start, taking the sting out of Faringdons opening attack and setting their usual good platform for the innings. Ollie went for 15, whilst Joe maintained his excellent form this term with a solid 30, whilst supporting the destructive Wilbur. As the players each took turns to try out the now famous “fishing chair” (although I don’t think it will be long before Crouch brings one!), Marsh’s powerhouse smashed the bowling attack around on the way to an impressive 54, giving Marsh an excellent chance of victory. With 20 overs left, the required rate was around 4rpo, so it was well within reach with men in the hutch. With last weeks lower order collapse in mind, Stu, Shippo and Mathers played very carefully to not give their wickets away to see the team home. Marsh failed at this point to get to grips with the Faringdon slow bowlers and the scoring rate notched up a little but it was well within distance, however, in hindsight, we/I needed to push the ball around more and not let them settle into a rhythm, but with the thought that one big over would come as per the previous week, it still felt very much in control! This left us needing about 15 from the last two overs and when this only went for one run as Stu swiped and missed spectacularly!, this left Mathers with the difficult task in the last over and Marsh fell 7 runs short, leaving the batsmen dejected and the awaiting team not looking too impressed!!
A bad defeat, which we know we should have won, but we have to move on from this and get ourselves back up the league as its still wide open and we have shown we can the best teams if we apply ourselves! Although more of us (myself mainly!) take the blame more than others for this defeat, we should remember that we win as a team, but we also lose as a team….there are any number of incidents during a game which could have tipped it our way and saved those all important seven runs….a few less four balls, some better fielding….better running…..getting to the stumps for a run-out. This is in no way dismissing the error of judgement made in the middle overs by our batsmen or excusing it, but we need to remember that if you bowl on the stumps consistently, then its a lot harder for batsmen to score, regardless on the potency of the bowling! Its done in the middle, not on the sidelines or in the bar!
Anyway, after the disappointment we did have some fun with fines after Kim was very loose about some of Stu’s bedtime routines, Carlos was found guilty of simulation of an explicit act with a cuddly rabbit in front of young children and Wilbur was harshly judged on his Val Doonican jumper!
Onwards and upwards next Sat at home to Broughton.
Stu
