The 2’s arrived at OMT’s for their final game of the 2020 season one point ahead of their opponents at the summit of the table. A mouth-watering, winner takes all, shoot-out between the best two teams in the league, drew in the biggest crowd of the season, as the Hares away following peaked at an impressive 16.
With illness striking down the 1 st XI’s senior seam bowler, a last minute change to the team-sheet meant player of the season, Ronnie Hirani, received a thoroughly deserved call-up to the 1’s, with Doug King making his first appearance of the season for the 2’s. To the surprise of absolutely no-one, we were in the field first, as skipper Richards lost the toss, but on a flat looking wicket and a relatively short boundary, the team were confident of chasing down anything. An opening combination of the experienced King and youthful Senatore (4-31), got the Hares off to a flyer. The former applying the pressure at one end with the latter bowling a superb opening spell, chipping away with crucial early wickets, leaving OMT’s reeling at 75-6. The typically economical Morris and Oliver ‘The Chundering Death’ Richards continued to apply pressure but a frustrating 7th wicket stand of 85 propelled OMT up towards a respectable looking score. King’s and Richards’ 2nd spells ended proceedings with OMT’s bowled out for 202 and leaving the skipper with excellent figures of 5-37 from his 7 overs. You could argue that score was below par in the conditions, but after the start they made, the 2’s were hugely disappointed to let their opponents off the hook. Shepherd and Fosberry strode to the crease with confidence and were making light work of the run-chase, putting on 55 for the opening stand. Some eye-catching strokes from both openers had put their team right on top, until Shephard was run out for 26. Richards continued where Shephard left off and built another healthy partnership with Foz, who was ticking along nicely, until he was stumped off the leg-spinner for 34, attempting to accelerate the run-rate. Richards and Petley began to rebuild putting on another 34, leaving us on 124-2 with plenty of overs to knock them off. But once Petley pulled a long-hop straight down deep-backward square’s throat and the in-form Knife chipped one up to the in-field, all of a sudden WinViz had shifted from 75% in HCC’s favour to a 50/50 shootout. Wickets continued to fall and you could feel the tension beginning to build in the away end, as the 16 strong Hares army turned to Prosecco to settle the nerves. Unfortunately the tail failed to wag, and when Richards fell 1 short of his half-century, caught one-handed in the ring for the second week running, and Day holed out to deep long-on after a couple of well-timed boundaries, the 2’s were on the ropes. Our last two wickets fell without adding to the score leaving us 20 runs short and gifting the league title to our opponents. A disappointing end to a good first season back in Division 3. Plenty of positive to take from the season as a whole, but with no promotion or relegation this season, the 2’s will take great encouragement going into next season, that they can challenge in this division and get a league winners pennant pinned to the HQ wall in 2021.
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