A Tale of One City
OXFORD GAINED THEIR first win in the Inter-university BUSA tournament as they beat local rivals Brookes on a sun baked Sunday afternoon at the picturesque Queen's College ground.
Having gotten a trouncing by Loughborough in their first game, and then suffering a heavy loss to the MCC, Oxford were delighted to bag their first win of the season. The university has a policy of playing predominantly Tics and players trying to break into the Blues in this competition, whereas all the opposition are university first teams, which makes their matches much tougher than one would at first appreciate. Greg Adams, the Tics captain, lost the toss and so Oxford had to field first in blazing heat.
Dan Watson bowled with heart and raw pace to grab some early breakthroughs, putting Brookes on the back foot. The spin twins of Hudson and Gammel put the breaks on in the middle of the Brookes innings and runs were always hard to come by on a slow, low pitch that offered slight help to the bowlers. They continuously lost wickets despite some aggressive stroke play from their lower middle order and eventually got up to 166 in their allotted 50 overs.
The Oxford innings got off to a dreadful start, losing Gilbert in the fourth over, and then Clarke followed immediately, getting a golden duck thanks to a demon inswinging Yorker first ball!
Adams and Fox started a rebuilding process, but Adams got one that kept low and Oxford were reeling at 30-3 in the 14th over. This brought Bhavesh Patel to the crease, who with Fox showed great temperament, technique, and powerful hitting combined with a little luck to bat through the innings and win the match for Oxford. Patel ended on 80* and Fox 52*. They scored at a fast rate, putting away the poor deliveries and keeping out the good ones to see Oxford home to 169-3 and win by 7 wickets. It was a good team performance in the field that set up this modest total for Oxford to chase, which they did in style, winning with over 10 overs to spare.
Greg Adams said he was pleased to see the team get into winning ways and hopes that they can continue this in their remaining 3 group games to hopefully qualify from this tough Midlands group to the semi-finals.
8th May 2003