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Offley & Stopsley CC 138 all out Vs Luton Town & Indians III's 140-3 ; 2nd May
OSCC Lost by 7 Wkts
OSCC started the Saracens league campaign in disastrous fashion as a shocking turn of events lead to Offley playing with 10 Men. Captain Bridgland won the toss and decided to bat first, and given previous experiences in the Saracens League at Offley, this seemed a strange choice, but perhaps the fear of chasing a total against quality spinners played on the skippers mind.
Bexfield and Brodie opened the batting for Offley, as the pair set about building a solid foundation. Brodie hit a couple of nice boundaries over mid-wicket and through Gulley moving the score into the 20's, before being bowled attempting to smear the wrong ball over mid-wicket. Chaudry got an Offley shooter at number 3 to be bowled for 6.
Dhrupal and Bexfield showed signs of leading a recovery, as the pair added 41 for the third wicket, before the introduction of Kirit changed the shape of the match. As he bowled Dhrupal with a nice in-swinger, then picked up the wicket of Bridgland two over's later, as the skipper attempted a big shot only to be bowled for 0. Two balls later the wheels feel off for Offley in bemusing style, as Lunney was run out for 0, after a mix-up with Bexfield.
Equipped with his new long blade, Latino (Lorenzo) joined Bexfield and the pair added 18 before Latino gave it away when he was bowled for 13, to leave Offley in real trouble on 121-6, but effectively 121-7. Chamberlain showed signs of improvement as he displayed a solid forward defense before he too was bowled for 3 and Ward followed soon after for 2, leaving Offley on 131-7.
With Freeman batting at number 10 at the captains request, Offley had one last chance to push the score to 180, and give themselves a chance of a an unlikely win. After playing a nice knock and now seemingly in, Freeman stupidly edged a legside delivery onto his boot, which went onto the stumps. Offley finishing all-out on 138, which looked at best 40 runs short, and no batting points.
Freeman and Brodie opened the bowling for Offley with early wickets now the only hope of victory. Unfortunately it wasn't to be Offley's day as difficult catches went down from both openers, but the pair bowled a good spell before tea, conceding only 32 runs in 13 overs, with Dave Bridgland bowling a token over before tea.Bridgland and Chaudry began spells after the tea break, with both bowlers unlucky not to take a wicket. Chaudry fired in a number of good yorkers, whilst Bridgland gave the ball some air and was so close on a number of occasions to hitting the stumps. The first break-through and first point finally came when Suleman was run out attempting a poor run.
Ward and Lunney replaced the pair in a double bowling change, Ward took two wickets in an over to give two more points. Lunney at the other end mixed very good balls, with the odd tree-ball, but with 60 overs to bat the batsmen seemed content on waiting for anything loose.
Freeman re-entered the attack after reading the code of conduct stapled to the inside of his pocket, and was almost rewarded when opener Pun chipped a simple catch to Lunney, unfortunately it was dropped, which kind of summed up the day for Offley. The batsmen milked a 6 over spell from Chamberlain and Lunney to get over the line on 140-3 in 47 overs, which compounded the fact that the overs were not batted by the Home side.