1’s move into 2nd after close win against OH

The first game after the New year’s break came with plenty of optimism for the Old Xavs players. Sitting 4th on the ladder heading into the break with only 1 loss and a convincing first half of a game against today’s opposition - Old Hailebury - before Christmas led them to believe that they could compete with the best in the comp in 2022.

As skipper Sheedy was running a little bit late, Kane Pirera took the toss and was sent in on a green but hard Plunkett Oval wicket. Despite the look, the Plunkett as usual played very true and was a good cricket wicket. Batting First, Pirera and Baker opened up before Kane was bowled for 3. Baker and Russ steadied the ship with a 60 run partnership before Baker was dismissed for a well compiled 27. Captain Sheedy and Jim Forrest followed making handy contributions of 23 and 29, but Nic Russ was the star of the batting innings with 51. There were a few middle order contributions from Livermore, Dalbosco, Hart and Whelan which helped OX get to a respectable 187 off their 40 overs.

The bowling would have to be tight to depend the score on the Plunkett - normally a 200+ wicket, especially with the best batsmen in the competition opening for OH. Whelan and Nunan took the new ball and didn’t make any inroads early but bowled tight and effective lines which limited OH from getting away to a fast start. Nunan bowling 8 overs straight for 29 runs was critically important for us to get off to a good start. Todaro came on at 1st change and broke the game open for us, removing both openers in quick succession. Dalbosco, in his first game in nearly 5 years also bowled with some venom and picked up 1/25 off his 5 overs. Unfortunately we let the game slip away from us a bit and with OH 4/145 with 8 overs to go our backs were against the wall. Sheedy and Whelan were able to bowl tight lines whilst also taking regular wickets to swing the game back in OX’s favour. A critical catch from Tom Hart and a classy run-out from Dalbosco also helped us stay on top and the game resulted with OH 9/177 after their 40 overs.

A great team win and hopefully can start to build some momentum heading towards finals!