MAL suffered only their fourth defeat of the season, with a severely weakened side soundly beaten by a strong Octopus CC.

Featuring five debutants, MAL’s total of 142 saw only three players reached double figures, though good fight was shown throughout the order, particularly given that there were two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old in the line up.

While Brett Simon and Mark Landau were together, taking the score to 63-1 in the 17th it looked as if MAL may post a competitive total, but after a calamitous run out resulted in the dismissal of Simon for a brisk 34, MAL never really recovered.

Landau made a hard fought 27 and Pinty Baddiel made the same score in breezy fashion, but wickets tumbled throughout, keeping the scoring rate down, with the final wicket eventually falling in the last over.

The total of 142 always looked inadequate, and was made to look so by some aggressive batting by the Octopus batsmen. Chances were created in the early oversbut not taken, as Ogilvie got Octopus off to a flyer with 53 off 30 balls.

It’s hard to be downbeat about the defeat as the team was very much of a scratch nature, and it was great to be able to give everybody a game.

Yoni Schurder, though expensive, picked up a couple of wickets, with one being held well at the wicket by 14-year-old Nick Phillips.

Octopus skipper Joshi was being even more brutal than Ogilvied and smashed his way to 65 not out, as Octopus reached the target inside 17 overs.

It’s hard to be downbeat about the defeat as the team was very much of a scratch nature, and it was great to be able to give everybody a game.

MAL 142 (39.4 overs) Simon 34, Landau 27, Baddiel 27, Ingram 3-10, Sam 2-27
Octopus CC 143-3 (16.5 overs) Joshi 65*, Ogilvie 53, Schurder 2-59, Sacher 1-33