The Cooks welcomed ON’s fifths to a chilly Compton Park for their first home game of the season. Skipper Mark won the toss and predictably chose to bowl. Fast forward 20 overs ON’s are 62-0, but this score line did not tell the whole story. The bowlers held the upper hand especially Tony Bird, who bowled superbly exploiting the conditions well, ensuring that the batsmen played and missed on numerous occasions. With the luck not shining on Tony, the Cooks were wicket less and with the pitch continuing to provide inconsistent bounce it seemed to be only a matter of time before wickets would fall. This proved to be the case with Chris Mason bagging 4 wickets in as many overs, with Mark also claiming a scalp. The Cooks now held the upper hand reducing the opposition to 83-5 after 30 overs. Determined batting by the ON’s lower order made sure a further 50 runs were added to set a target of 136, which would to prove challenging to say the least.
After tea the Cooks were soon in trouble losing batsmen at regular intervals. The scoreboard told it’d own sorry tale 59 runs scored for the loss of 7 wickets showing, the Cooks were well and truly on the ropes. All the batsmen struggled especially against the ON’s left armer, the only saving grace being the tenacity of Jack Quennell who despite losing six partners seemed determined not to surrender his wicket without a fight. Enter stage right Dan Harris, batting at the unaccustomed number 9 position in the batting order due to an on field injury, which was clearly hindering his mobility. The pair started quite slowly at first but with Dan understandably happy to play the supporting role, to Jack, whose batting was flourishing even though conditions continued to be challenging. The tide was now turning in the favour of the Cooks as the pair reached 100 and steadily getting closer to the final milestone. Just as it appeared the pair would steer the Cooks to victory Dan was bowled by the returning left armer for a valuable 14. The alarm bells were now ringing as 9 runs were still required, this was reduced by 6 until another the Cooks lost Chris Mason bowled at the end of the 36th over. Jack now had the strike and it only took him 2 balls to score the remaining runs to enable the Cooks claimed victory from the gaping jaws of defeat. Jack’s innings of 65 was pure gold and the 8th wicket partnership with Dan worth 68 runs proved decisive in gaining a narrow one wicket victory.
The first win of the season was well earned by the seconds who will need to improve on their batting, as more batsmen need to join the party to ensure that the good work of the bowlers is not in vain. There were many pleasing contributions in the field, not least wickets candy also first for young Will Tipler. Given continued unavailability the seconds now need to build on this reasonable start to this season, with a string of consistent performances.