City-slickers Oxford 2s entertained Witney Mills’ finest, on a balmy Saturday afternoon at a resplendent Jordan Hill. Stand-in-skipper Balaji Ramalingam opted to bat first at a brief, yet cordial toss.

An early boon for Roman morale saw cult hero Chetan Walia take once again to the field at HQ, this time with his umpires hat on- having long since hung up the blue suede Adidas Sambas.

As the Oxford innings began there was little sign of what was to come, with Hurt and Hall- not a duo of sub-par magicians on a car ferry, but the home team’s opening pair – scratching around in tricky, swing-friendly conditions. Next a fluent Faizaan Abbas arrived at the crease, who instantly made batting look a good deal more facile, with a series of easy-on-the-eye drives before missing a straight one on 23.

All this was merely fluffing for the main event- an individual innings for the ages. Dominic Whinfrey instantly found the middle of the bat and executed a piece of critically acclaimed performance art, choosing the medium of swashbuckling, hard-hitting yet classy Cherwell League strokeplay. Inside-out over cover, a brace of 85-metre maximums, forward defensives (!) this knock had it all. After falling a scoring shot short of a ton last week, Saturday’s milestone was all the more deserved, and gleefully received by teammates.

Whinfrey was ably supported by Ramalingam, who composed a serene and well-paced 42 in an 170 run partnership which would ultimately dominate the game. Whinfrey eventually departed for 138 from 98 balls, with 23 boundaries. All this on camera too, how fitting for his masterpiece to be recorded for posterity.

Oxford eventually stuttered somewhat but ended on an extremely commendable 254 from their 50 overs, a score seldom chased at JH- apart from 7 days prior in the 1st team game vs Datchet!

As Mills’ response began, the juxtaposition of a snarling Musk and a cherubic Baldock bore immediate fruit. An iron fist in a velvet glove. The young Arthur Baldock channelling his inner Busby to coax an edge from a thanks-for-coming opening bat, and Musk snicking off another two of the top three- poetry in motion plus the usual cursory point back to the pavilion for the befallen victim.

Only the industrious and powerful Swindells got going for the visitors, scoring a fine 60 before holing out to the deep- capably caught by the imposing Jenkins on the rope. Ramalingam chipped in with 10 economical overs of pretend off-spin and Anderson-Elliott, Meg Jones and Jenkins toiled to decent effect on a flat pitch. Nawaz bounced around the outfield chasing leather like a badly injured mammal, cruelly not put out of its misery by its lethal attacker.

For the second week running the chasing opposition made some strange choices in pacing their innings, and so were not really in the hunt from quite a way out from the eventual crescendo- Baldock returning to claim his 3rd wicket and continue his impressive form with the ball.
And so it was, three from three for the Romans.

Up the City!