Close....but not close enough

Fegocowosa CC went down fighting in their opening game of the 2009/10 CCC league season yesterday at the TBS Oval. The encounter with defending champions, Ibeju-Lekki CC, was a historic affair, being the first every organised cricket match in Nigeria in coloured clothing, and it turned out to be a match worthy of the occasion.

The Warri boys won the toss and decided to bat first in their all green strip. As expected the Ibeju bowlers were a handful with the new ball, and both openers fells to Seye Olympio within the first ten overs. The old stagers, Roland Ilube and Uthe Ogbimi, combined to steady the ship, taking us to 59-2 after 16 overs, but the water break changed things in favour of the yellow-clad Lekki squad. Uthe and Oduyebo fell to Leke Oyede in successive balls, and when Roland gloved a lifter from Bejide 3 overs later, we were in the mire at 66-5. Femi Olayiwole and Prosper Mgbanwa took us to within sight of the 100 mark, but after Prosper departed, Saheed Akolade returned to polish off the tail, leaving us 127 all out in 40.3 overs.

No one outside of our squad though this would be enough, but an early run-out exposed the much-vaunted Ibeju middle order to Michael Agbiboa - the delta express - in full cry. A high-class spell of fast bowling saw him claim 4 wickets in 6 overs, three of them clean-bowled, and the champions were rocking at 21-5. Oduyebo chipped in with one more before the score got to 50, but the lunch break gave Ibeju a chance to regroup, and after the restart Bejide (45*) and Oyede (40) put together the game-turning partnership. Olayiwole finally got rid of Oyede just before the end, and if another catch had been held straight after, we might still have pulled off a famous victory. As it was, we were left to ponder what might have been.