1’s lose to Melb High in opener

After rain had interrupted the opening rounds, the OXCC 1’s had their first game against last year’s runners up Melbourne High. For the first time, Angus Sheedy was to lead the boys out as Captain, whilst we also had debuts for the club as well as debuts for the senior side. Dominic Baker was making his debut for the club whilst Hayden Ellis was playing his first game in the 1’s and Nic Russ was making a long-awaited return to the OXCC.

Melb High batted first on a flat wicket with an outfield that resembled a lawn bowls pitch. A short square boundary also presented ideal batting conditions. OX was on fire early with Pat Nunan and Bailey Whelan bowling tight lines with the ball also swinging and took 3 quick wickets for the score to be 3/35 after 10 overs. Unfortunately, OX was unable to capitalise on the great start by the openers and struggled to find consistency with their line and length and often bowled both sides of the wicket. Nic Russ came in and bowled some tidy off spin to pick up 2 wickets. Nunan’s 2/33 off 8 was the pick of the bowlers.

Chasing 251 was never going to be an easy task but the opening combination of Dom Baker and Lucas Agnoletto got us off to a great start to have an 89 run opening partnership before Bakes was removed. Agnoletto followed quickly afterwards with one of the best catches I’ve seen in this competition. This set the tone for the rest of the innings with OX losing wickets quickly and unable to build on ‘starts’ as well as forming partnerships. Forrest, Hicks and Macrae all provided entertainment and impressive stroke play to result in OX ending up on 7/226 after their 40 overs.

A tough game to lose after making 226 runs with the bat but it was a great hit out and we will greatly improve out of the game. Consistency with our bowling will be the focus of the week ahead as we look towards playing MCC in Beaumaris.