Devon Dumplings v Nomads

Wednesday 07 August 2024 at Queen's College Oxford

DDCC 255/5 dec (39.5 ) Beat Nomads 251 all out (52.4 ) by 4 runs


This was a very tight game against a soi-disant “weak and old team“! We didn’t fall for that one! James Horler was  captain, winning the toss and sending in Aashay Dube (21) and Elliott Barnes (100 retired out) to open up against what turned out to be a pair of young fast bowlers! The first two wickets fell to Will Marriage (36/2) with Dube followed by debutant Tim Dart who will hopefully trouble the scorers on his next Dumplings outing. Barnes was joined at 46/2 by Ed Wade (73) in an excellent and quick partnership of 136. His final partner before he reached 100 was Tom Cates (39*) and he retired at 217/4 bringing another Wanderer, Matt Nichols (7), to the crease. They put on 38 before Nichols’ fall brought about a sporting declaration at 255/5. 
 Sam Read (59/3) opened the attack, bowling seam up, something of a novelty for him. However in his first over he removed the opener for a 4 ball duck. Dylan Rajan (61) and Junaid Aziz (46) added 98 before Joe Poustie (58/3) removed both Rajan, his replacement (for a 2 ball duck) and then Aziz taking the score to 111/4. Harry Gribble then claimed Yasin Mohammed (5) courtesy of a good catch by Poustie, taking the score to 135/5. Nomads late middle order of Mohsin Rahman (29), Dumpling guest Jeremy Tojy (34) and septuagenarian Nigel Bloch (50) added 114 runs putting Nomads within sight of victory until Bloch was bowled by Read for the 9th wicket. Will Marriage (4*) stuck around well, facing 17 balls whilst Bloch edged towards the win before he was joined by Arvind Joshi (0) within 7 runs of a great win with one wicket to left. Read needed only 4 balls at Joshi before he edged to Wade to give Dumplings their 4 run win. A tense and entertaining game.