The 4ths travelled to Kimble on Saturday to take on their 2nd Team. Having won the toss, Kimble elected to bowl first on what looked like a fairly flat wicket.
Banbury started solidly and progressed to 59-1 of 13 overs with some quick early runs from Justin Lambden (31). However, a couple of quick wickets saw Banbury at 59-3 and runs suddenly a bit hard to come by. Richard Lambden and Andy Jones started to build a steady partnership with some of the Kimble bowlers struggling in the heat. As the run-rate increased, Richard and Any took the score to 191 in the 39th over before Richard was out for an excellent 53 (and a partnership of 132 in 26 overs). However, from there wickets started to fall regularly and once Andy was out for 85, it was left to Mark Pallet to try and get the team to 220 for maximum batting points. However, the team felt just short on 218 with Mark run out off the last ball.
When Kimble came to bat, the made a bright start racing to 60-0 off the 1st 15 overs. However, a drinks break gave a Banbury a bit of focus with 3 quick wickets falling due to some tight pressured bowling from Justin Lambden and Mark Wright. Kimble kept pressing for the runs despite losing a few wickets and a couple of dropped catches by Banbury could have changed the game significantly. In the end, when Kimble’s 7th wicket fell on 165 with 6 overs still to go, they ‘shut-up’ shop and score 3 runs of the next 6 overs to finish at 168-7 and that match drawn. The best bowlers for Banbury were Justin Lambden with 5-56 (off 15 overs) and Mark Wright with 1-33 (off 12 overs).
For Banbury, 1 or 2 wickets in the 1st 15 overs may have been the difference in forcing a result, but it was still a good result which kept Banbury in 5th place but now only 29 points off 1st place and 22 points behind 2nd placed team (who we take on next week!).
Many thanks again to Peter Scott for scoring again and transporting some of the players to Kimble.