Varsity 1 Day Match Report
Friday 24 July 2009
CUCC vs Oxford University 4th July 2009 at Lord’s
Going into the match as holders of the One Day Varsity Trophy, Cambridge University skipper Akbar Ansari won the toss in bright sunshine and decided to bat first. However just as openers Chris Grammar and Philip Ashton walked out to the middle, cloud cover came over and suddenly what looked like a great toss to win turned into an absolute disaster. With the ball swinging around and 4 good catches taken behind the wicket, CUCC were soon reduced to 24-5 in the first half hour. Frankie Brown (23) and Edward Pearson (13) showed some promise in a partnership of 28 that looked like it could have rescued the situation, but this was ended by a combination of poor running and dubious umpiring leading to the latter being given run out. Brown went shortly after, and this was pretty much the final nail for CUCC as the score now read 63-7. Matt Cook and Ananya Sen put on 33 for the eighth wicket but the only real period in the day when CUCC seemed to be ahead of the game was in an entertaining ninth wicket partnership of 26 between Ruel Brathwaite (2 sixes) and Matt Cook (1 six). However this proved to be a short lived burst as Brathwaite was soon bowled for 15 off 12 balls after the batting powerplay was taken. Cook soon followed for a well fought 26 and CUCC were bowled out for 123, which was never really going to be enough.
Predictably, the sun came out over lunch and despite a fantastic spell of fast bowling from Brathwaite (10-2-38-3) on what was now a flat wicket, Oxford University, led by Sharma’s 45 (who had earlier taken 2-11 off ten overs in the CUCC innings) comfortably chased to win by six wickets.
Despite the poor result, a lot was learnt about the Oxford University batting and bowling which could help CUCC to prepare for the 4-day Varsity game in 2 days time.
Anand Ashok
