Life is not easy when you’re fighting against form, in the middle of the holiday season and people have niggles/injuries. On a sticky deck, home captain Simon Wilkinson won the toss and decided to set a target. New-ball pair Jonny Litler (10/0/41/1) and James Bell (10/3/23/0) bowled an excellent first 20 overs, Jonny taking former OP’er Andy Mills’ wicket with his fifth ball. Conditions were difficult and the tight, challenging bowling meant opener Josh Patel (27) let Max Marinic (51) take the lead in scoring runs, making sure the scoreboard kept ticking over. The mix of pace was continued when Adrian Lascu (5/0/40/2) and Andy Dufty (9.1/3/23/4) took hold of the ball, and Adrian looked to have better luck than last week, Frank Farrington holding on to a edge off Max Marinic. He had brilliantly attempted to do so in the 15th over, off Litler but just couldn’t fully reach and keep control. From 61/1 after 20 overs, however, the score had jumped to 82/2 in the 23rd over. Fielding mishaps and the vast outfield then offered more than a few scoring opportunities, even though wickets kept falling on a fairly regular basis. Lascu was replaced at the Field end by Danny Leech (10/1/55/1) just after drinks and just after Leech had caught Bridgeman in the 26th over, and Leech got the patient Patel caught by Peter Cook two overs later, home team now on 106/4 off 29. When Dufty then held on to a low catch off his own bowling and the score had moved to 110/5, Dufty brought George Moss (4/0/32/1) into the attack for the first time this season. Scoring had become a bit easier it seemed, although extras and some misjudged fielding attempts did help, and 110/5 became 153/6 in the 40th over, when West (34) was caught by Lascu at Extra Cover, then 200/7 in the 46th over, when Lascu came back for a second and more successful spell, changing end to let Dufty finish the innings off at the Field end, taking the last wicket with the first ball of his last over. Out of the 214 on the total for Bramhall, 26 were extras, and an estimated 10-15 that could possibly have been prevented by a bit more diligence in the field.

With a judgement of ‘low and slow’ on the pitch, and the probability of it dying in the second innings, the 215 set to win would be a challenge and patience in building up the innings was on the cards. Danny Leech was unlucky to be LBW off the last ball of the first over and Frank Farrington was well caught by Simon Wilkinson (9/2/24/5), leaving OP a restauration job with Andy Dufty (72) and Jonny Litler (35) from 11/2 /6.2. Patience, good running and gaps in the field allowed them to up the score to 87/3 in 16 overs when Litler got brilliantly caught by Oliver Webb (9/0/36/2). Adrian Lascu and Nick Ball couldn’t get a start, and with the score on 96/5/28, Ed Roberts (39) joined Andy at the crease for a 32-run partnership for the 6th wicket, the second highest partnership in the OP innings. Getting caught in the deep meant Andy got stranded just short of his career best of 74 for the first team, and put an end to an excellent batting display, trying to put pressure on the bowlers when he could while not taking risks as he lost partners on the way. Jake Forth (16) and Ed have got us close before but it was Simon Wilkinson’s day, picking up his last 3 at a cost of 18 runs against his own bowling and restricting OP to 185 off 48.

I mentioned 1 stat earlier, so let’s have a few more, starting with the batting. Andy Dufty is now leading the run total with 633 from 21 innings at a strike rate of 76.27. Jonny Litler crossed the 200-mark (206 at 56.28). Jake Forth (124 at 136.26) and Ed Roberts (106 at 59.26) are moving up the top 15 for this season. Andy has now also passed 1500 career runs for the 1st team (1548 at 70.01) while Jonny has moved into the top 30 (662 at 49.66), still a bit behind Frank Farrington with 777 at 59.63. Adrian’s 568 at 121.63 might mean he is trailing Andy for this season, but in the all-time batting records in Play Cricket, he has now moved up to 35th place based on runs scored and 5th based on strike rate.
Andy is also leading the bowling stats for this year, with 37 wickets so far, at an economy rate of 3.98. James Bell is the only bowler with a lower economy rate, which deserves a special mention as he has been opening the bowling in the last few weeks, but that low economy rate and opening has also meant he’s only taken 7 wickets so far. Nick Ball with 28 (ec.rate 4.86), while Adrian is third with 25 wickets (5.98). Andy has 232 career 1st team wickets (3.87), Danny Leech has 106 (4.51). Jonny Litler and Nick Ball are climbing the ranks with 59 (4.86) and 44 (4.73), respectively. Adrian is 36th on the all-time statistics, once again showing off his contribution so far this season.
That leaves the fielding stats. It should come to no one’s surprise to see Frank Farrington leading the 2024 tables with 21 catches, 7 stumpings and 3 run outs. Adrian has 10 victims (9 ct /1 ro), Andy 8 (7 and 1). Career stats see Ben Kettle 4th with 109 victims of which 57 as wicket keeper, Danny Leech on 6 with 105 of which 102 catches and Frank has moved to 11th with 59 victims (40 ct /15 st / 4 ro). Andy is the last current player in the top 20 with 39 (31 ct / 8 ro).

Plenty of positives for 2024 in the stats, we ‘just’ need to get over the niggles/injuries and up our ground fielding game to support our bowlers even better and get us closer to the win. Next week we’ll welcome top of the table Brooklands to Pinfold Lane and we’ll face Cheadle and Lindow away on the last weekend. Tough fixtures, so we need to bring our A-game in all 3 departments of the game.