Devon Dumplings v Nomads CC

The 2021 Oxford Tour began with Nomads winning the toss and electing to bat on a rather worn strip that had already seen two games played on it. Continuous rain in the preceding week had made preparation very difficult for the Groundsman. The agreed format was of 95 overs in total with a declaration intervening.

Tight and accurate bowling from Richard Bentley brought the reward of an early wicket, courtesy of a nonchalant one-handed take by debutant wicket-keeper Ollie Gribble.  The same action, left arm over, brought a wicket for Matt Nichols. He then took a sharply spinning catch at Point from Harry Everett’s legspin to leave Nomads at 65-3.

This brought together Mark Richards and Anosh Malik. They proceeded at a much more rapid pace and added 123 in fine style. Malik, after an uncertain start, was striking the ball cleanly and Richards hit some fine boundaries.

Everett eventually induced a false shot and Malik was caught with the score on 188.

Nikhil Malik came and went quickly and once Richards was neatly stumped for 83 the innings was drawn to a close, a total of 230 from 49 overs.

Everett and Bentley had bowled well with good support from Gribben and Nichols. The two Seniors spinners Berman and Gribben had suffered a degree of lese-majesté at the hands of the chief run- scorers when they were in full flow.

Ollie Gribble had taken two good catches and a stumping,whilst the 9 byes and leg-byes were more a reflection of a generous interpretation of the Law on Wides than on his competence.

Dumplings’ innings got off to a rocky start with the early dismissals of Ollie Gribble and Christian Cabburn. Oliver Allsop and Matt Nichols then took the score on to 96, at which point Nichols was bowled behind his legs for 28. Allsop went soon after and a brief innings from Harry Kandampully had the score at 107-5.

However, Melbourne import Shea Gribben and Mark Gribble came together and added 66 runs at a good pace. Gribble went for 28 and 10 runs later Gribben had followed him back to the Pavilion with the score at 183-7. Everett and Bentley scrambled together 19 runs, but then they were both out with the score on 202 and any chance of dogged resistance from the number 11 batsman was snuffed out by an idiosyncratic LBW from a tiring umpire.

Nomads had fielded energetically and an excellent bowling performance by Nieboor gave them the edge in an otherwise close game.                                                                      PMB

Nomads: 230-7 dec - M. Richards 83; A Malik 69; H Everett 10-0-49-3

DD:         202 AO - O Allsop 57; S Gribben 41; L Nieboor 11.5-4-34-5; P Malik 7-2-16-3 

Nomads won by 28 runs