A tight squeeze

Fegocowosa squeezed past Ibeju-Lekki CC (previously Ibeju-Lekki II) at TBS yesterday, but it was a lot tighter than the fans of the men in green would have liked.

Ibeju's ploy of sending out a small Indian boy for the toss worked for them and they chose to bat first. They made a steady start, but were let off by the Warri fielders, as two straightforward chances went down early on. Despite that, they never really got any momentum going as Kehinde "Kento" Olabinwonu, on his FGCW debut, turned the screw with a spell of 10 overs for 23 runs, while James "Spartacus" Imhanlahimi picked up a couple of wickets at the other end. Femi Oguntoke continued the spin torture once Kento was done, adding another couple of wickets, and when Femi Oduyebo returned to shoot out three in quick succession, the innings was almost done. The last pair clung on to add another 25 crucial runs, before James claimed his third scalp with the score on 148.

Seun Garuba came steaming in for the yellow-clad Ibeju boys, and laid waste to our top order. After a spell of 9 straight overs, he had knocked over numbers 1-4, and forced skipper Roland Ilube to retire hurt. At 43-4, and with doubts as to Roland's ability to return to the crease, those extra 25 runs scored at the end in the Ibeju innings looked to have assumed match-winning proportions. Oduyebo and Aziz Salako came together to begin the fightback, and when Kento took up the torch after Oduyebo fell for 22 it seemed that the alarms were over. There were more twists in this tale though, as first Aziz was run out with 30 still to get, and Kento then picked out the deep fielder 20 runs away from victory. It was left to the old soldier, Andrew A-Roy Ororho, to see us home by three wickets with 8 overs in hand.

All in all a closer game than it should have been, but neverthless we go into the game against the defending champions in 3 weeks time with 2 victories under our belt.

By popular demand - scorecard from GCI game

FGCW Innings:

1 Mgbanwa c Animashaun b Onwuzilike C 13
2 Alikali c Adegbola K b Onwuzilike C 5
3 Okwudili c Olayinka b Adegbola K 21
4 Ogbimi b Adegbola K 18
5 Ilube c Ewete b Adegbola Y 19
6 Oduyebo c Adegbola Y b Iteogu 60
7 Salako c Onwuzilike C b Adegbola Y 20
8 Omozejele not out 12
9 Ikenwanso lbw b Animashaun 0
10 Oguntoke not out 38
Extras 42
Total (50 overs, 8 wickets) 248

Bowling

Iteogu 8-0-40-1
Onwuzilike C 9-1-42-2
Adegbola K 10-0-53-2
Animashaun 5-0-28-1
Adegbola Y 9-0-30-2
Atoloye 9-0-46-0

GCI innings

1 Adeniran c Okwudili b Omozejele 32
2 Olayinka b Ikenwanso 6
3 Gill c Okwudili b Abioye 9
4 Adegbola K c Alikali b Oguntoke 64
5 Adegbola Y b Abioye 37
6 Onwuzilike O c Salako b Oguntoke 12
7 Onwuzilike C c Salako b Omozejele 12
8 Atoloye c Okwudili b Oduyebo 5
9 Ewete not out 3
10 Animashaun run out 0
11 Iteogu b Oduyebo 1
Extras 34
Total (44.3 overs, 10 wickets) 220

Bowling

Abioye 10-0-35-2
Ikenwanso 4-0-25-1
Oduyebo 8.3-0-34-2
Omozejele 9-0-45-2
Oguntoke 10-0-50-2
Ogbimi 3-0-24-0

All blades are sharp

Fegocowosa Cricket Club kicked off the CCC Lagos League season in fine style today, with a 28-run over reigning Super-4 champions Government College Ibadan Old Boys CC at the TBS Oval.

Skipper Roland Ilube won the toss (yet again) and had no hesitation in batting first. Four of the top five batsmen got to double-figures, but none of them got to 25. It took another coruscating innings from Femi Oduyebo, who is in some rare form at the moment, to take us to 200, and then an innovative unbeaten 35 from new boy, Femi Oguntoke, to get us to a truly imposing 248-8 off 50 overs.

Abiodun Abioye bowled a probing opening spell, but Newton Ikenwanso's rustiness showed at the other end, even though he picked up the opening wicket. Two more fell, but that brought the Adegbola brothers together, and they looked as if they had turned the match with an 80-run partnership. Abioye returned to castle older brother Yemi, and this was the opening that the Warri boys needed. Oguntoke, wheeling away from the Pavilion end, took out one Onwuzilike, while Frank induced an edge from the other, Now it was all down to Kunle Adegbola, but finally he gave one chance too many and the end was in sight for the Ibadan boys. Oduyebo returned to clean up the tail and cap a magnificent all round performance.

We have spent the last month sharpening our blades, and today we showed that all blades are sharp.