Return of Gibbo inspires 10 wicket T20 win

A showery Sunday afternoon in Winchmore Hill saw OE's kick off their 2017 T20 campaign against north London neighbours Northampton Exiles. The side was notably bolstered by the return of club stalwart, Robert Gibson. This would be his first outing, having joined lesser known names such as Kevin Pietersen and Chris Gayle, as a T20 specialist. The match having been planned as game two of a double header for the Exiles gave OE's the chance to catch the end of the previous fixture, with it quickly becoming evident that we'd be playing on a pitch of slow pace but highly variable bounce!
With that in mind, upon winning the toss, stand-in skipper Charlie Scutt (who had relinquished the gloves to Gibbo for the day - nothing to do with the pitch he assured everyone...) had no hesitation in asking the home side to bat. With pink ball in hand, the opening combination of Charlie Busby and off spin (because that’s what they do on TV) of Nav Akhtar proved highly effective, with the host’s opening pair struggling to get the scoreboard going in these early overs. The breakthrough soon came as the Exiles no. 2 was struck on the pads by a full, fast delivery and was adjudged lbw – with Buzza ultimately finishing with astonishing T20 figures of 4 overs, 2 maidens; 1 for 5! Akhtar was replaced by George Franzini, who bowled 4 very tight overs of left arm spin, picking up a wicket in the process thanks to some superb glove work from Gibbo and eventually finished with figures of 4 overs 1 for 19. OE’s continued to show great discipline with the ball as the seam of Anish Patel (1-17 - Caught Gibbo) and Paul Lissowski was followed by accurate death bowling from Saqlan Ahmed and Matt Holland with this backed up by some high-quality fielding; including a full-length diving stop from Saqi, inches from the rope. The outcome: Northampton Exiles were restricted to 100-3 off their 20 over allocation - thanks in particular to an unbeaten 31 from Pratik Patel.
In response Sean Price and Tushar Patwary strode to the crease with the latter flying out the blocks in particularly explosive fashion. Pricey was happy to rotate strike in the early overs, before unleashing his own onslaught – launching the bowling for a series of boundaries, including the a huge six over square leg. Following a short rain break and resumption, the game was eventually abandoned after 11.1 overs with OE’s significantly ahead of the required run rate at 90-0; Pricey and Tush having contributed 38* and 44* respectively. Had Exiles held their catches the run-rate would have surely slowed – but as it was Gibbo would be left with 11 overs of pad-rash and OE’s left with their first T20 win of the season!

Notable Performances - Charlie Busby (1 for 5 off 4), Tushar Patwary (44*), Sean Price (38*)
MoM - Rob Gibson (2 catches); closely followed by Charlie Busby