Slough bowl their way to crucial win over Oxford as title race goes to the wire

Sahaan Sahaan. Credit: Slough CC

--

Slough remain out in front in the race for this season’s Home Counties Division 2 title after an impressive bowling display saw them get the better of Oxford by 113 runs on Saturday.

Nadeem Syed’s side hold a slender six-point advantage over closest challengers Wokingham and the front runners for promotion have been matching each other stride for stride in recent weeks. In fact, they’ve been neck and neck for most of the season, but the honours will be decided in the coming weeks, with Slough to visit Gerrards Cross on Saturday before finishing off with a home game against Falkland on September 6.

Wokingham also have a couple of tricky fixtures left on paper, with a trip to Oxford this Saturday followed by a home game with third placed Gerrards Cross on the final day. It could be that in-form Cross prove to be the king makers this season.

Wokingham certainly show no signs of slipping up as they overcame Bicester and North Oxford by nine wickets at the weekend.

Saturday’s win for Slough over Oxford was more about the strength of their bowling than their batting.

Having elected to bat on winning the toss they managed just 227 before being bowled out in the final of their 50 overs.

Arsalan Oberoi (61) and Sahaan Sahaan (43) shared a stand that helped carry the hosts past the 200 run mark, however, their final five wickets were taken for less than 40 runs and Syed would know his side had a job on their hands to defend their total at the changeover.

Thankfully for him, Slough’s bowlers and fielders were able to strangle the life out of Oxford’s reply as Kazim Naqvi and Mujtaba Ghayyas took three wickets each.

After a decent start by opener Barney Carey (40) and Julian Laird (15), none of Oxford’s next five batsmen managed to score more than four runs. That tipped the balance firmly in Slough’s favour and they ran through the rest of their line up to dismiss them for 114 in 31.2 overs.

In the same division, Datchet are finishing the season inconsistently. Having beaten Oxford by 140 runs the previous weekend, they suffered a three-wicket defeat at third placed Gerrards Cross on Saturday.

Having been put into bat, Joseph Thomas’ side managed 131 before being bowled out in 36.4 overs. No one managed a big score although Steven Naylor saw off 53 balls for his 28.

In reply, Cross also looked edgy to begin with, falling to 7-3, however, Ben Spencer (46) and Hugo Hammond (33) saw them recover well to get to their target for the loss of seven wickets in 25.1 overs.

Datchet finish their campaign with a trip to Falkland and a home game against Horspath.

They sit fifth but will do well to catch the likes of Horspath and Gerrards Cross for fourth or third.