Ovo 3rd XI Suffer Double Defeats As Season Draws Towards Close
Ovington 3rd XI had a disappointing end of the summer holidays as they suffered a couple of defeats. Their dream of finishing the season in the promotion places may not have been realised but the entire squad can be proud of the efforts and achievements over the year. Well done all. You even managed to survive Dave Warner’s “captaincy” and a season of playing at Millthorpe.
Saturday 30th August, Ovington 3rd XI vs Melbourne 1st XI
Ovington: 148/9 (40); Warner 43, Smith 24; Chandran 3/24, Steels 3/25
Melbourne: 152/7 (32); Steels 67*, Coupland 44*; Bishop 4/39
Melbourne won by three wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6780195
The final weekend of August saw the 3rds return to the Millthorpe Bowl for the home leg of the Melbourne classic. After last time outs dramatic result it seemed a no-brainer that Melbourne would arrive with more numbers and a strengthened squad and so it was.
Captain Warner had planned to let Melbourne bat 40 overs and play for rain but how wrong he was. Warner again losing an important toss Melbourne stuck Ovington in to bat, looking to getting a result before the forecast bad weather arrived later in the day.
Chandran and Steels once again opened the bowling for Melbourne and immediately made life difficult for the home team. Ovington found themselves 0 for 0 from 5 overs, 0 for 2 off 5.4 overs and then 12-2 off 12. But, and a big but, as in the away leg the hard work had been done by the top order. Graham Walton in particular doing another amazing stint to see off the 2 openers and Aaron Moorhosue on debut managing to score here and there leading to Ovington limp with hope up to drinks. Walton fell on the stroke of the break but had done some serious hard yards. From here things started to tick over, Seth Young with his first meaningful bat since his return scoring 23, aided by a quickfire 15 from Ollie Thrift who even managed to stick a 6 on the all-weather. Ovington reached 71/6 before stalwarts Dave Warner (sponsored by Dunnington Landscaping) and Luke Smith hit the crease.
The little and large duo started to get things moving and with some good running and talking in the middle with a 50 partnership coming up with speed as the bats made the most of the slower bowling they were facing compared to the early barrage others had faced. At this point Ovington may even have felt they were in the ascendancy. Unfortunately for the home team Chandran and Steels had 6 overs left between them. Smith fell to a plumb lbw before Warner, who a shot earlier had walked down the track and cut 4, dollied up a predicted bouncer for catching practice with a poor shot and found himself out. Gaurav Chandra, Andrew Tomlinson and Brandon Bishop kept things going and Ovington who finished their allotted 40 overs with a total of 148 for 9. Warner was incredibly proud as the team all dug in and managed to get to a score that earlier seemed insurmountable.
The picnic underneath the grey clouds was wolfed down and after the team apple break Ovington were out to bowl.
Bishop at one and Young at the other and Ovington were underway knowing they faced a very strong batting lineup.
Bishop (sponsored by Black and White Cat) was the first to strike, Sam Angus also on debut taking a solid catch before Bishop repeated, this time it was Jacob Mellows with safe hands. 2 good batters were gone and as Melbourne had slightly reversed the order, Ovington smelt blood. Bishop and Young then struck again in quick succession, both into the hands of Warner and Melbourne were 19/4. Steels was in the middle and doing his best to steady the ship, at this point Melbourne just had to survive and see a few overs out. However Young tore in again and took another to leave the opposition 27/5. And this is where the game changed. While Ovington were dreaming of the Miracle of Melbourne Part 2 the cricketing gods had other ideas. Bishop who had bowled brilliantly all game kept on, Steels swung his bat and a loud wooden noise was heard, a half celeb appeal took place but umpire and batter were unmoved. Both said it wasn’t out and they’re good people so you take them at their word and move on. Steels did give one more ‘chance’. In truth it was a hell of a stopped 4 as Smith close in at cover got leathered by the ball. He did manage to stick a hand on it but even at international level they’d get taken maybe 1 in 2 so at Millthorpe you’ve got bloody no chance!
Warner brought himself on and had a caught and bowled before man of the match Bishop removed another Melbourne bat. Ovington knew they were one batter away from the last man as Coupland came in for the away.
But this is where the hope died for Ovington. Tomlinson, brilliant once more behind the stumps allowed Warner to set attacking fields but unfortunately the wicket would not come. Bishop and Young tried with quality but to no avail. Warner was played for singles with no big shots. Mellows came on and bowled brilliantly but with no luck, somehow not removing Coupland on multiple occasions.
Warner turned to the odd over of spin but although Gaurav had 2 very close balls skidding through. and Angus likewise the wicket would not come. In the end Coupland nicked behind only to find a gap between keeper and slip to win the game with 10 overs remaining.
In truth neither team can argue, we stole a result at their place and they heavily rode their luck at ours. Great sportsmanship was on show throughout and both teams were happy to play through the rain to get a meaningful result.
Good luck to Melbourne for the rest of the season and the Ovington boys will dust themselves off before going again next week.
Man of the match could have gone to several but the standout performance fell to Bishop, bowling and fielding brilliantly throughout he didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.
We go again.
Saturday 6th September, Sherburn Eversley 2nd XI vs Ovington 3rd XI
Ovington: 106/10 (33.3); Warner 35; Perara 4/7, Hudson 2/20
Sherburn: 107/1 (20.1); Mistry 47*, Green 27; Chandra 1/24
Sherburn won by nine wickets
Scorecard: https://ovington.play-cricket.com/website/results/6780201
The first Saturday in September saw the 3rds head over to Sherburn for the penultimate game of the season.
Sherburn had been on a bad run with 5 losses from the last 5 games but a closer look would show some incredibly close games against the top teams and then a couple of weeks where numbers were low and the skipper was away. So Ovington went into this rather unsure of what they would face.
On arrival it soon appeared Sherburn were back up to full strength and even had a steady supply of reserves. Ovington themselves had what the captain described as 9 people who want to bat at 5 and bowl 5, higher order batsman were not at a premium but as always people stepped up.
Winning the toss and batting Ovington were shaky from the off. Sharoon Shahzad survived a runout as Captain Warner blinked at the wrong time. However he fell soon after. Sherburn were playing to their strengths. Military medium from one end was contrasted with beautiful variations of leg spin from the other. Will Hampel was next to go, lbw was the call and everyone standing head on agreed. Hampel tried calling for DRS as he had feathered it onto his toe, but the 3rd umpire was on the nearby skate park so he had to go. Aaron Moorehouse in at 3 fell next to become the 3rd victim to the leggy who was bowling beautifully. Luke Smith came in and started with intent and looked in good nick. Unfortunately his eyes lit up too early and he played a booming drive on Friday morning instead of Saturday afternoon. The skew behind was taken as a sharp catch by gully and Ovington were 36/4. A mini revival did start to take place as Andy Baldwin and Seth Young got Ovington to 60 before 60/4 became 61/6. Dave Warner (sponsored by Dunnington Landscapes) had agreed to an extra over to be bowled before drinks as they weren’t ready in time and that was the over in which the 2 wickets fell. Great captaincy again.
Andrew Tomlinson arrived at the crease with Sherburn refreshed but soon fell and it was all looking bleak. Warner and Spencer Fern (sponsored by DWUFB) then managed a turnaround of small sorts. Warner playing the shots and Fern keeping himself solid and present. Warner was telling Fern not to do anything silly and reached 35 until he did something rather silly himself. The leggy was back on after a break and Warner thought here we go, unfortunately the ball rode higher than predicted and all the silly captain could do was half pull out of the shot and give the bowler catching practice. At the start of the next over, Fern was bowled and a ball later Bishop was gone. 106/7 was now 106 all out with 7 overs unused. Very sloppy.
Gaurav Chandra assured everyone that had Bishop stuck around then he would have smashed a quick 50, instead he walked off not out having not faced a ball.
Tea was well received and Ovington went out hunting wickets. The pitch during the lunch break appeared to have aged dramatically.
Bishop and Young bowled with intent but the pitch had other ideas. Although the bowling was economical, chances weren’t coming. The ball just sitting up for the batsman to play off the back foot. Warner aimed for an intervention but to no avail. Fern did well and dropped one off his own bowling. Warner went for an 2 expensive overs and turned instead to Gaurav. This was really the only part of the day Ovington looked dangerous. Firstly he took a wicket with a solid catch from Smith and then bowled some unplayable deliveries. Unfortunately it was all too little too late. Sherburn knocked the runs off to secure a 9 wicket victory with 19 overs remaining.
Ovington were confidently outplayed and Warner believes if Sherburn had that team every week they would have be at the other end of the table than where they actually finished. The captain of their team is a good man and we wish them all the best.
As for Ovington we go again next week. Although beaten, the attitudes shown and the effort exuded was exemplary, and for that Warner was extremely grateful. Man of the match goes to Gaurav Chandra, on the day he showed the most skill and deserved a lot more.
We go again for one more.
Match reports by Dave Warner. Photo by Khurram Jillani