The Ramblas, fresh off their first win of the season, hosted old foes Petts Wood in what was only their third home game of the season. And while the forecast predicted glorious sunshine, the weather was anything but warm and sunny, a common theme for Sundays this season.
A one match winning streak didn’t prove enough to ease the Ramblas selection nightmares, with several players still unavailable. Luckily for skipper Michael Cooper, Pete O’Rourke stepped in at the eleventh hour and the hosts had a full compliment of players.
In a rare moment for Ramblas captains, Cooper won the toss and elected to bowl first. With former Rambla and Steve Fitch bunny Peatfield opening the batting, Cooper elected to open the bowling with Fitch and Doug Danks. Both bowlers started strongly, keeping it tight in the early overs.
Danks picked up the first wicket of the day when he dismissed Meaton for 16. After dispatching Danks for a maximum the over before, Meaton tried the trick again but was caught by Geoff Parrett at long on.
Thomas replaced Fitch at the tennis court end and carried on Fitch’s good work. Petts Wood’s number three Darshan was looking in great touch and took a liking to Danks bowling and upped the run rate fairly quickly. Danks finished his spell and was replaced by Cooper.
Doug & Thommo putting a shift in
As the partnership built, Thomas made a breakthrough when he trapped Peatfield LBW for 11. Darshan continued to chip away at the score and in an attempt to change things up, replaced Thomas with Geoff Parrett. Parrett’s rhythm wasn’t there early doors and a few loose balls were dispatched by Darshan. However, Parrett got his revenge, when he clean bowled Darshan for 59.
Tough chances go down in the field
Cooper made a double change, replacing himself with Fitch and bringing on Mark Loughlin in place of Parrett. Loughlin was straight in the action, bowling Iqbal for 32 with a beautiful yorker. Fitch picked up where he left off but couldn’t grab a wicket, but his figures of 7-0-20-0 helped keep the scoreboard in check.
With Fitch bowled out, Cooper brought himself back on for a quick one over burst. And the plan proved inspired when Dipati was caught at mid wicket thanks to a juggling catch from Drew Smith.
Coop & Drew celebrate the wicket
Loughlin took his second wicket of the match when he clean bowled the visitor’s captain Dryden for 22. Fitch nabbed the seventh wicket thanks to a fantastic run out to dismiss Cook for 6.
Petts Wood finished their innings on 184-7, a total that was well above par on a tough wicket to bat on. An early honorable mention to Haydn Evans, whose exemplary efforts in the field helped keep the score under 200.
Both teams tucked into another excellent tea and thoughts soon turned to the run chase. And with the hosts short of opening batsmen, Parrett stepped up to the plate to help the Ramblas out and went to bat with Ash Harriss.
Alas, Parrett couldn’t repeat his performance against Hadlow and was clean bowled first ball of the innings. Smith came in at three and the pair were initially watchful but as ever with Harriss, boundaries are never too far away.
Smith took his score to 3 before he was trapped LBW and the Ramblas found themselves in a bit of trouble at 8-2. O’Rourke was the next man in for the hosts and took his time to get off the mark but looked calm at the crease. Harriss hit a glorious maximum but was caught by Dryden off the bowling of Meaton for 19 trying to repeat the trick.
The Ramblas batsmen hard at work
Disaster struck for the Ramblas when Evans and Matt Rudgyard were both clean bowled by Meaton in the space of four balls. The Ramblas found themselves at 24-5 and the innings was unraveling.
Loughlin partnered O’Rourke and together they rebuilt the innings slowly but surely. The pair rotated the strike excellently and O’Rourke started to unfurl boundaries with increasing regularity, including a huge six over the deep cover boundary.
The duo took the score to 88-5 but with the required run rate nearly touching ten an over both batsmen knew they had to be more aggressive. In attempting to up the run rate, O’Rourke was caught at mid wicket for a well fought 42.
Cooper was the next man at the crease and was off the mark thanks to a tickle down to the fine leg boundary. The skipper rode his luck early on in his innings and had Petts Wood’s ‘keeper to thank after he dropped a simple catch to spare Cooper’s blushes.
Skipper’s reprieve
Cooper and Loughlin kept chipping away at the scoreboard but on a tough wicket and a good bowling attack, boundaries began to dry up. A maximum from Loughlin eased the pressure but as the Ramblas reached the last few overs, the game had slipped away from them.
In the final over, Cooper’s innings finally came to an end at 21 when his drive could only find the cover fielder. Fitch was dismissed next ball and Danks was tasked with batting the final two deliveries. Danks nicked a single and Loughlin saw off the last ball as the Ramblas finished on 133-8.
Ramblas originals in various degrees of action…
The bowling performance wasn’t among the finest the Ramblas have ever produced, but the effort cannot be faulted. And to come back from 24-5 to get 133-8 showed that we have plenty of character with the bat in the absence of more recognised batsmen.
Next week the Ramblas head to another old rival, Chevening and aim to bounce back strongly from this defeat.
Ramblas MVP: Honourable mentions to Steve Fitch and Chris Thomas who were economical with the ball and Michael Cooper and Pete O’Rourke who contributed with the bat. However, for his all round performance of 2-23 with the ball and 38* with the bat, this week’s MVP is Mark Loughlin.