A pleasantly warm summers day at Compton Park for the local derby against Wollaston Thirds. Skipper Mark lost the toss and it was no surprise the visiting captain chose to bat in conditions that looked to favour the batsmen.
Mark and (the fit again) Sid opened the bowling, a good length and line by both bowlers meant the batsmen look uncertain at times, struggling for runs with both batsmen offering chances, albeit difficult ones. The Cooks were soon to rue not these opportunities. Mark sensibly withdrew both himself and Sid from the attack after 6 overs apiece as the temperatures warmed up. The Wollaston’s openers were now turning up the heat themselves and punished any bad ball received from the new bowlers. A century partnership was reached in the 22nd over and with the scoring rate approaching 5 runs an over, a breakthrough was desperately required.
Adam Lee-Brown joined the attack at the Brafield End and the game took an unexpected but welcome twist for the Cooks. Adam’s first ball sparkled with brilliance, swing and seam movement took the well set batsmen totally by surprise to provide the breakthrough. Adam was not finished and claimed another wicket from the fifth ball of the same over to give the Cooks a foothold back into this game. Wollaston’s captain joined their remaining opener, looking to force the pace and though this dangerous attacking batsmen smashed a couple of sixes his threat and that of the other batsmen were extinguished, by the returning Mark (who took 3 wickets in this spell) & Sid not of whom never allowing the final run chase to get out of hand.
The damage had been done by the openers and though the Cooks fought back well, a target of over 200 was going to be challenging.
From the start of the Cooks innings there was a sense of déjà vu to the first 15 overs of the hosts reply. At drinks Adam and Russ had taken the score to fifty (Wollaston were 51-0 at the same stage) and though runs were not easy to come by the pair seemed to be in control. On the resumption this all changed, with the needless run out of Russ going for a second run from a misfield. Though Adam was predictably standing firm the next three batsmen soon departed and the run chase faltered. Ben joined Adam and the pair started to build a useful partnership. Any hopes that the Cooks had were completely dashed in the 30th over by Wollaston’s wily spinner, deceiving first Ben then Mark to snatch back control for the visitor’s.
Adam LB joined his defiant namesake and though they added useful runs, their efforts were in vain with Adam LB and then half centurion Adam departing, the game was now completely out of reach.
This defeat hinged around the century partnership of the Wollaston openers, with the half chances taken the Cooks could have played themselves into a situation where their target could have been considerably less. A might have been situation is always going to be disappointing for all concerned but with the margin for error in Division 10 being so slight, the Cooks now need to focus on next week’s vital winnable game, to purge the memory of this unfortunate defeat.