The first weekend in May brought the HAWCC team to Prestcold for the second match of the season and as if to prove that last week’s decision to bat first was the right one despite the defeat, the skipper once again choose to bat first after winning the toss. This week’s theory was that we’re had an evening out planned in Headington and we didn’t want to finish too late…
After last week’s slow, but steady start, this week we were slow and not so steady, losing a few early wickets on a slow pitch that had variable bounce. The middle order slowed down the rate of wickets, without increasing the run rate and at one point there was the chance that we wouldn’t get to 3 figures in our 40 overs. Some acceleration later in the innings, with Kavi proving to the be batter of the day and John adding valuable runs meant that we posted a score of 128 from our 40 overs.
We didn’t have the strongest (or youngest) bowling attack and it soon became clear that we were going to struggle to take wickets at the rate we needed to put pressure on the Prestcold batters. Graham’s opening spell was very accurate and John came on later to keep the batters in check before deciding that it would be a good idea to try to take a return catch with his shin instead of his hand and had to hobble off the pitch. Robin took a spectacular return catch to move into the position of leading wicket taker for the season (with 2 wickets) and Simon showed of his wicket keeping skills with a fine stumping on Kavi’s bowling. Prestcold knocked off the runs needed with more than 6 overs to spare and we managed to get to the pub an hour earlier than expected!