Pirates chase falls short after Osterley slap 258

The 4s title challenge took a blow last weekend, losing 10 points to the two teams ahead in a loss to the bottom team in the league.
The Pirates lost the toss and were put in the field on a very hot day. The opening pair of Lodge and Sood bowled well, restricting Osterley to 28-1 from 15 overs on a pitch with tiny boundaries.

However, once the ball stopped swinging, Osterley employed the often seen in our league “swipe across the line” shot to good effect and took apart all bowling put in front of them to get 240 more runs from the next 27.4 overs before they were bowled out.

At tea the Pirates were not demoralised, despite a massive reversal in fortunes since the first drinks break, there was a feeling that if we could bat the overs, the pitch was so small and the outfield so fast that we would get the runs.

Rhys and Tyler opened, and got off to a quick start, running well between the wickets and dispatching the bad balls to the boundary until Rhys was unfortunately caught behind in the 3rd over for 17 with Reigate on 23. Captain Ross joined Tyler at the crease and together they put on 50 for the next wicket, running very effectively, before Tyler (32) was clean bowled by Osterley’s off-spinner. Brijesh came in next and played with his usual swashbuckling style, gaining 14 runs before being caught behind, bat-pad from the off-spinner. Matt Loft and Ross then began to play as Ross and Tyler had earlier, taking singles everywhere, punishing bad balls and ensuring that every over went for at least 6.

Shortly after the second drinks break at 30 overs, with Reigate needing 105 from the last 15 overs, Loft (20) fell, bowled whilst trying to kick on. When Ross (67) had his leg-stump knocked out of the ground two overs later by the same bowler, trying to force the run-rate, and then Brijesh Bharatiya (6) was caught behind later in the same over, the Pirates had fallen from a reasonably positive position with two set batsmen to 171-6, needing 91 from 13 overs with players untested as 4s batsmen. Chris Dahl (14), Hari Sood (28), Elliott Lodge(10*) and Richard Boon(1*) all batted bravely and aggressively, but fell short of the required 7 and over, with the Pirates ending 238-8, losing by 20. A brave attempt by all despite the lack of availability.

The Pirates got the maximum 10 losing bonus points from this fixture and still remain in the title hunt (currently a not too distant 3rd) but will need a very good August to pull the teams ahead of them back in.