30th May Abington (H)
The Cooks boasting just one change from last week welcomed Abington to a sunny but cool fortress Compton. As is the rule this season Ryan lost the toss and the visitors chose to bat. The Abington innings was a tale of two parts, the first 26 overs bowled by Tony and Sid, proving to be battle for the opposition upper order. With just the fourth ball of the game Tony produced a pearler of a deliverl to bowl an opener, and this set the tone for this spell of play. Both the Cogenhoe bowlers commanded the utmost respect and with a little more luck may have more taken more wickets, two for Tony and one for Syd. But danger was lurking in the form of the number three bat who had entered the fray at a very early stage. Content to limit his scoring from an odd bad ball from the Cogenhoe pair, proceedings took a dramatic twist with the enforced double change, the score being 70-3 off 26 overs. Abington’s Edlington then took charge with the Cooks bowlers being regularly despatched to all parts of the Compton expanse, with the fourth wicket pair adding 125 runs at an alarming rate. The Cooks were by now feeling the heat from the onslaught. With the number 3 still at the crease the runs continued to flow until his innings was ended by Ben Garratt in the last over for 124. Ben ended his short spell with 3 wickets his first league wickets for the Cooks. Abington had amassed 147 runs in the last 17 overs, to give the Cooks a challenging total to chase.
In reply the Cooks soon lost opener Russ and Dan Harris was joined by the skipper. The pair with a mixture of attacking shots and a good dollop of luck started to compile a meaningful partnership. It became clear that today was Ryan’s lucky day as the Abington fielders managed to spill 4 chances in fairly quick succession. Once the pair had reached their century partnership Ryan’s lucky streak finally ran out when he was caught in the deep. This was the breakthrough that Abington needed and Dan soon followed his skipper needlessly run out for a determined 34. With Mark Bird soon departing and little batting left, all hopes were left with Liam and although he played some great shots as he battled cramp, the slim chance of victory evaporated in the 40th over when the valiant Liam became Vinod’s third victim bowled for 33. Young Tom encouragingly hit a quick 13 but by now the cause was lost and the Cooks innings ended 26 runs short of their target.
This defeat was a little disappointing given the way both opening bowlers restricted the opposition batsman over the first 26 overs. The batsman gave the run chase a good go and with an extra specialist batsman the target may have been reached. Although the seconds have only won one out of four they have shown beyond doubt they are competitive in this higher division.
Great game played in the right spirit, well.done and we look forward to the return match at home!!