The short trip to Little Marlow saw a closely contested match and a narrow 8 run defeat for the Wooburn team. Wooburn required 13 from the final over, but three singles and the dismissal of Will Cuthbert meant they only managed 4 and Little Marlow could celebrate a victory.
Little Marlow batted first, and Wooburn’s best chance of winning lay in removing Adam Ali early, which they came close to doing. Will beat the outside edge on several occasions, but the batsman survived, and then cashed in, reaching another 50 before having to retire. Apart from him, the batting was not great until the other Ali came in later on to bash an unbeaten 22 at the end, as Little Marlow reached 107 from their 20 overs.
For Wooburn, Will and Ali Dalton bowled well at the start, making good use of a fast bouncy pitch. John Henry Kelly and Matt Hoddell also kept the scoring under control, but Vith suffered somewhat, and could have done with some protection on the boundary, particularly at long on and deep midwicket. Wooburn\s coach did not intervene to improve the field placing, on the understanding that the boys should manage the game themselves, and learn from their mistakes. Several easily preventable boundaries resulted.
The Wooburn reply started slowly against some accurate bowling. Ali went early, but Will and Oli Lawrie then added 37 for the second wicket. At the half way stage though, the score had reached just 35-1, and more urgency was required. After Oli’s departure for 14, Michael Levy came in and immediately the temp increased. After 15 overs, the total had reached 57-2, and the required rate had gone up to 10 an over.
Excellent batting and running saw 28 runs come from the next three overs, leaving 22 required from the last two. It was all getting a bit too close for comfort for the home umpire, and he saw fit to start directing operations on the field, although he did stop short of marking out his run up. 9 runs came from the 19th over, leaving 13 from the last, but it proved too many and Wooburn fell frustratingly short of their target.
The lessons to learn from this match were more tactical than technical. We needed to be more aware of the match situation and, where one batsman is going well, try to keep him off strike, particularly when the other batsman is struggling. Give singles to a deep set field and attack the other batsman. When batting, we started a little too slowly. We need to set ourselves targets and try to make sure we do not leave too much to do in the last few overs. After bowling well, this was a match we could have won, but if the lessons are learned, the defeat will have been worthwhile.
Bowling: W.Cuthbert 4-2-8-0, A.Dalton 4-0-19-0, J.H.Kelly 4-0-18-1, M.Hoddell 4-0-22-1, Vithuraan 2-0-24-0, A.Jordan 2-0-14-0
Batting: W.Cuthbert 36, A.Dalton 3, O.Lawrie 14, M.Levy 23, M.Wilson 0*
Team: Will Cuthbert, Ali Dalton (capt), Oli Lawrie, Michael Levy, Matt Wilson, Vithuraan, Matt Brockman, Ollie Nicol, John Henry Kelly, Matt Hoddell, Alfie Jordan.
