Cowley CC v Wild Duck CC. Tuesday 26th July 2022

After a sweltering day, the evening was still uncomfortably warm and muggy as Jon won the toss and elected to bat first against our visitors, the Wild Duck CC (from near Kemble).

Joel and Grace opened the batting in their first appearance for Cowley this summer. Joel got off to a flyer - taking a liking to the pace offered to plunder 3 boundaries in the first over. He raced to 25 in 4 overs (16 balls, 5 fours) for a well earned sit down in the shade. Nick joined Grace, and while the run rate slowed a little they added a further 18 before `grace was bowled for 11. Adrian B joined Nick and they added 25 for the 2nd wicket, the stand broken when Adrian played all round a loopy slow ball that should have been put away only for him to lose his bails to depart for 13. Adrian D joined the fray, as Nick played with more fluency and retired on 26 (3 fours) with the score on 91 in the 16th over. Tim joined Adrian and faced some variable bowling before being caught for 5. That triggered a good old Cowley collapse - our guest Jack was well caught for a duck, Kelv got a good one to be bowled for a 2nd ball duck and then Adrian was caught for 5. 4 wickets fell for 2 runs in 11 balls.... Alex and Phil saw off some excellent death bowling to bring us up to 110 for 6 in our 20 overs.

Tim and Adrian D opened the bowling as the Wild Duck made a positive start. One opener retired in decent time, reaching 25 with a maximum off Kelv. The pressure of a few dots to the new man paid off however as Kelv snared our first wicket, the no3 LBW for 0. Grace and Joel took over the bowling and kept things tight. Joel's first ball was an inswinging yorker that the opening batter did well to keep out. Joel kept on testing him and finally got his man at the end of the over when an edge looped up to be snaffled by Alex at gully. Our guest bowled well for no reward and Nick was a bit variable but managed to get a low full toss past the bat to clatter into the off stump. This was to be our final scalp however as another batter retired and the pair at the crease took a liking to Phil (including a couple of huge sixes) and then crossed the line helping Jonnys leg side delivery down to the fence.

Defeat for Cowley by 7 wickets (and with the best part of 3 overs to spare). Despite the good foundation set by Joel and Nick, we didn't really have the firepower to push on a get a competitive score (not helped of course by the spectacular collapse). And although on the whole we bowled and fielded ok, the Duck never really looked in any bother.