SVCC Men's 3rd XI v Oakfield Warriors 1st XI (A) - 25.05.24

Sevenoaks Vine 3s made the short trip to St Lawrence to play Oakfield Warriors and having lost the toss were inserted on what looked an interesting wicket.

Nigel Taylor and Duncan Irens opened up and started brightly against the seamers before Taylor was the first wicket to fall for 13 bowled by one that kept a bit low. Charlie Williams looked good once again before mistiming a full toss to long on and the Vine were 50-2. Duncan Irens batted really well for 22 before being stumped leaving Pulkit Verma and Hilton Henderson together. The score kept ticking along until Henderson was bowled by a good leg cutter and with 16 overs to go the Vine were 88-4. Runs then dried up against some good spin bowling and once Pulkit Verma was run out for 26 followed rapidly by Ryan Gavin who chipped a full toss back to the bowler first ball it was left to Hugo Read and Hugo Tudor to scramble what they could from the remaining few overs and the Vine finished on 129-6.

This felt a little below par but certainly defendable.

Ryan Gavin and Mark Poole opened the bowling and a tough chance was missed very first ball before a few overs Gavin struck with Duncan Irens holding a good catch. Poole was very economical and his 9 overs went for only 18 building pressure on Oakfield and but for a poor drop would have been in the wickets. Gavin picked up a second wicket before Matt Dickerson replaced him and Hugo Tudor took over from Mark Poole. Dickerson picked up an early wicket and when Hugo Read held an excellent catch in the deep off Tudor Oakfield were 55-4 off 20 overs. Dickerson picked up a further wicket in an excellent 9 over spell of 2-23 as did Tudor but runs were leaking and Oakfield were down to needing 29 off the last 8 overs. Next on was Hugo Read with his leg spin and he picked up 3 wickets for one run and suddenly the Vine were favourites as 15 were needed off 3 overs with the last pair at the wicket. After a solid over from Charlie Williams the Oakfield number 10 took matters into his own hands and having had several previous swishes and misses at Hugo Read’s leg spin connected with two in a row the latter clearing Hilton Henderson by nothing to leave the Vine defeated by 1 wicket.