Cookham Dean nestled in nicely behind front runners
Cookham Dean find themselves nestled nicely behind the front runners in Thames Valley League Division 1 after Saturday's well deserved 45-run victory over Eversley.
Playing with a blend of youth and experience this season and savouring the joy of being back out in the middle with no COVID restrictions, Dean once again produced a disciplined all-round team display to see off Eversley's challenge.
Having been put into bat they produced a par score of 244-10 from 48.5 overs, with the impressive Deswin Currency smashing 87 and Shahzad Asghar reaching 64 to lay down a competitive target. Eversley, who'd lost their previous two matches having started with a blazing 238run win over Falkland, initially stuttered in their response. They lost early wickets and a heavy defeat looked to be on the cards as they fell to 68-5, however, Benjamin Salter (27no) and Chris Last (38no) showed the kind of resolve that was missing from their top order as the visitors finished their 50 overs on 199-8.
Dean skipper Greg Davis was delighted by the home side's display and the way they stuck together to seal their second win of the campaign.
“The season has kicked off pretty nicely for us,” he said. “We're sitting fourth in the table and there's already a divide with some teams winning four from four and other teams losing all four of their matches.
“Everyone is chipping in, and everyone is enjoying it a lot more this year, which we can’t emphasise enough. We’ve stuck together as a team.”
The emphasis may well be on having fun and enjoying their cricket this season, but Dean still have more than enough quality to unlock teams and win matches this season, not just in the league but also in the National Village Cup and Julian Cup t20 competition. They applied pressure with both the ball and the bat on Saturday and with scoreboard pressure also playing its part,
Eversley simply couldn’t cope.
“They had a guy who had backto-back hundreds so once we got him out, we had a feeling there would be some batsmen who hadn't batted much this season.
“They didn't put up much of a fight until right at the end when the game was all but done. Credit to their lower order batsmen who didn't just give up and give their wickets away.
“It was a good all-round display; 244 is about par for Cookham this year but, in 50/50 matches, when you bat first and get a decent total you always feel like you have the edge.
“We built pressure well. Scoreboard pressure along with bowling pressure created wickets and the game never felt like it was out of our control after posting such a competitive total.”
Dean travel to bottom of the table, and winless, Burnham in the league on Saturday having hosted them on Tuesday night in the Julian Cup.
“Burnham have recruited another couple of players in the last week or so and I don't think their league position reflects the strength of the team,” added Davis.
“But if we perform as we have done and know we can do there’s no reason why we can’t win there and leave them winless. If we could finish fourth this season that would be fantastic.
“The teams at the top are very strong, especially Stoke Green, who won it last year and have built on the team they had. There’s no reason why they won’t go and win it again.
“Henley 2nds have been a massive surprise, but they’ve been scoring runs for absolute fun. Ickenham have been a strong team for a couple of years, climbing up the league organically.”