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With our skipper absent celebrating his Grandfather reaching a lengthy innings of 90 it was my job to take over the reins as CCC took on ORPS in a must-win game. I got off to a poor start by losing the toss, and OPRS had no hesitation in deciding to bat first. Rian and Matt started with slightly wayward spells, both struggling with a brand-new ball that was swinging all over the place, and the ORPS openers took full advantage with some powerful stroke play. Matty came into the attack and had no luck at all with the ball just evading the fielders on numerous occasions. My over was dreadful, and we were really staring down the barrel with them on 110 after 7 over with two men having retired. Good last overs from Matt, Matty and then Rian dragged things back a little as we took a couple of wickets, one with a great piece of stumping from Si and the hilarious run-out of Britains' Favourite Crooner when he'd been caught off a no-ball and left his ground thinking he was already out. Their total of 148 was still quite daunting to face and the highest we'd conceded all season.
Myself and Chris got our innings off to a good start, mixing well-run threes with hard hitting down the ground and we both retired on 25's in quick time. There was a slight point of contention when I faced 4 consecutive bouncers off one of their bowlers, one which hit me on the glove and then the head, and one that I hit over extra-cover with a tennis shot and NONE were called no-ball. Rian and Matt were unfortunately run out whilst looking good, before Simon W played one CCC's best innings of the season so far. He retired on 27 having faced no more than 10 balls, which included one huge 6. Matty entered the fray with us needing around 30 from 9 balls and me at the non-strikers end. Unfortunately we couldn't get their quickest bowler away and and I couldn't get on strike. As well as keeping the runs down he left a couple of painful blows from more short-pitched bowling. That and the extra 12 (at least!) runs we should have from no-balls meant that the 20 run defeat left a sour taste in the mouth, and the nagging feeling that we've been exceptionally unlucky in this competition. We haven't made finals night, but should seal a comfortable mid-table finish with a good win over Genetics in the final game next week.
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