Saturday 6th August 2016
Travelbag Surrey Championship – Division 5
Maori Oxshott 173 for 8 (50 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 171 all out (49.2 overs)
Maori Oxshott won by 2 runs

The craziest of Division 5s took another twist as Stoke, looking to win to keep their promotion hopes on course and effectively end Oxshott’s, failed to get over the line and in doing so introduced Oxshott themselves to the race for 2nd place, which still has no clear front-runner as the sides immediately above them all lost as well.

James Trower won the toss and chose to field. Home skipper Driscoll took 14 of his 18 runs from the first five balls of Tarrant’s second over, only to mis-pull the sixth to debutant Charlie Hill. 21 for 1 was soon 34 for 2 when Ryan edged Tarrant to James Whitmarsh trying to run the ball down to third man.

Kolk and Hutcheon took the score past the 50-mark. Kolk hit some nice shots in his 20, and having survived a vociferous appeal for leg-before not given by home umpire George Depree, George later gave him out caught at slip, a good reflex grab by Ian Hopton off second change Matt Gottschalk.

Gottschalk bowled his ten over allocation through for the concession of just 23 runs, including seven off his last, and Hill, (pictured here), also helped make run-scoring a difficult task with a controlled opening seven over spell that yielded just 18.

Hopton struck in his first over when Baz Medlycott, (4), was leg-before hitting across the line for just 4, and Hutcheon lost another partner in Butt, (7), who mis-pulled the returning Miller to mid-wicket where Gottschalk did the rest. It was 75 for 5 at this point.

On a decent track Hutcheon and Keith Medlycott batted patiently and took what little was on offer. Miller, Hopton and Hill, (the latter finishing with a commendable return of 10-0-35-0), were unable to break a partnership of 70 in just over 15 overs; Nico Spreeth coming up trumps when Hutcheon cut to Trower at point for a hard-earned 63.

All of the Stoke bowlers did well; and Tarrant picked up two more in the closing overs; castling Harper for 12, (but not before he had hot a four and a six), and Medlycott Snr who walked on edging to Whitmarsh for 29. Tarrant finished with 9-1-31-4 having once been 1.5-0-18-0.

The innings closed on 173 for 8, (Miller 1-37, Hopton 1-29 and Spreeth 1-13 completing an excellent supporting cast), and Stoke had put themselves in a decent position at tea.

Once again, though, an early wicket was lost as Spreeth edged the third ball of the reply from Kolk to Green behind the stumps without a run on the board. Hopton and Giacomo Gray fought hard against Kolk and Hutcheon, and moved the score to 44 for 1 by the mid-point of the 16th over.

Then there was a mad few minutes where Stoke put themselves behind the eight ball. Depree found the edges of Gray, (10), and Whitmarsh in the space of three balls; and two overs later Hopton hit the same bowler to Driscoll trying to clear the in-field. But for a difficult chance not taken in the gully, Hopton looked in control for his 33 and his shot was somewhat out of character for both him and the match situation.

Trower and James Corbishley got the board moving again and run-rate was not an issue after Hopton’s knock; but the drinks rejuvenated the home side. Kolk came back into the attack, and took a good low return catch to account for Trower for 12. 75 for 5.

Corbishley showed good control and shot selection as he and Miller re-built the chase. They moved the total to 103 by the mid-point of the 35th over at which point Miller, (20 off 22), fell to an excellent running catch in the deep by Kolk to give sixth bowler Driscoll his first wicket.

Jase Earl joined Corbishley and a much-needed fifty partnership put Stoke back in contention. Earl connected with a few of his trademark shots and the pair ran well; but as Stoke were starting to look good for a win, Earl called Corbishley through and he was beaten by a throw to the keeper, (although the popular opinion was that he would have made it in had he grounded his bat.) Corbishley made 47 from 93 balls faced and hit just three fours. He pushed 29 singles, at one point he had 16 in succession.

155 for 7 and Earl still had lower order assistance at his disposal in Gottschalk, Tarrant and Hill; but with no addition to the score he was bowled by Driscoll for 24 from 41 balls off the last ball of the 47th over. This ended a very timely wicket-maiden for Driscoll and Stoke suddenly needed 18 off 18, the first time the asking rate touched a run-a-ball.

Tarrant clubbed a four over cow to open his account; and to the delight of a sizeable away support he parked the first ball of the penultimate over into the tennis courts to leave six needed from 11. A few singles were nudged, but as Stoke saw the finishing line Tarrant was bowled for 13 attempting a repeat leaving the last pair needing three off the last over.

Gottschalk rightly looked to end matter in one shot with the field up, but was bowled by Kolk, (9.2-1-41-3), to give a jubilant home side the win and leave Stoke with just three points for their efforts.

Stoke drop to fifth place with this result, 53 points behind leaders Churt – it is arguable Stoke have left at least that many points on the field with three clumsy defeats this season – but incredibly four wins from the last four games could still be enough after all other results went in their favour. Bonus points may come into it, which might make last week’s bungled pursuit of a winning draw a factor, but looking forward, next week they travel to Haslemere knowing only a big win will do.

We’ll end with a final word on the excellent spirit in which the game was played despite the closeness of the result where the comparative scores at the end of each over were remarkably similar.

Scorecard : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/website/results/2803893