Abingdon School 23 June 2021

Manager Andrew Russell

Lost by 9 wickets

SOA 129 all out

Abingdon School 130 for 1

SOA arrived at Abingdon school on a glorious summers day and after winning the toss Andrew Russell decided to have a bat first in this 30 overs per side match.

Luke Maslen and Nick Evans got SOA off to a tidy start, seeing off the new ball well while picking up some good runs against a very strong Abingdon bowling attack. However, a few quick wickets from Abingdon put us onto the back foot and a middle order collapse left the lower order with a big task to help us reach a competitive score. Some good cricket from Azlan and Greg Woods pushed us past 100 and both looked very solid in the middle. Sadly, more good bowling from the Abingdon side saw more wickets fall and the innings was finished with a catastrophic piece of running from Will Ginks, which resulted in a run out, with SOA finishing on 129.

The opening partnership of Greg Woods and Ed Owens started off very well with many chances being created, but not quite sticking. Greg made the breakthrough getting one of the Abingdon openers caught at mid-on by a very good catch by debutant Will Ginks. The bowlers carried on plugging away, keeping the Abingdon run rate down by bowling very impressive areas. However, Freddie Smith, their opening batsman found full flow and started reverse sweeping our seamers and hitting 6’s around the ground, eventually leading Abingdon reaching the target with 9 wickets to spare.

While the game did not go perfectly to plan for us, the game was played in wonderful spirit by both sides, and we look forward to facing them again next year.