Oxford Downs won the toss and elected to field on what looked like a very good batting deck.
Downs got off to a strong start with an early run out. Law and Woods bowled some very tight overs but failing to get any breakthroughs. Long Marstons 2&3 batsmen played very well having seen off our openers and Brad from the top end however a few overs in before skipper Mehmood and Amin Rafiq put the pressure on before Mehmood took the second wicket of the day.
The second spells from Law and Woods proved too much for the Long Marston batting line up as they looked to accelerate in the last part of their innings to be left all bowled out for 206 which seemed below par for that wicket.
Mehmood and Alex Ling opened the innings and got Downs off to a great start. However when Long Marstons star spinner came on he very quickly begun the first collapse dismissing Ling, Watts and Elwood in quick succession. George and Waz steadied the ship until Mehmood also fell victim to the same long Marston spinner. However things began to look up when Sandbach and Lauder steadied the ship.
Sandbach in the form of his life quickly reached his half century, before long George also fell victim to the same spinner.
This brought Amin Rafiq to the crease who quickly settled in and looked in fine form hitting some great positive cricket edging closer and closer to the target.
However runs could not quickly enough with Downs experiencing a collapse again with the dubious caught behind dismissal of Lauder which brought the soft dismissals of Chahal, Woods and Law.
Downs were 9 down going in to the final over with 8 runs to get. Unfortunately this proved too much with Long Marstons Captain producing some great death bowling.
A thrilling game from start to finish unfortunately luck wasn’t on our side so we take away a losing draw.