Match report by Neil Harris
Oxford University and Cambrige University played out a tight and competitive draw in this year's Four Day Varsity match, hosted at the University Parks.
The memorable moments of this annual Varsity match encounter were in the opening session before lunch on the first day and in the last session after tea on the 4th and final day’s play.
In between it was a grimly fought battle for supremacy with the scoring rate rarely exceeding three runs per over.
| Four Day Varsity, The Parks | |
| Cambridge University | 386 all out in 135.4 overs and 255-4 dec in 67.0 overs |
| Oxford University | 264 all out in 96.1 overs and 354-7 in 101.4 overs. |
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Match Drawn
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Day One
At lunch the Cambridge innings was in disarray at 107-5, the fifth wicket having fallen for a mere 85 runs.
From then on a record all time sixth wicket partnership (for Cambridge) of 216 between Akbar Ansari (193) and Nick Whittington (83) enabled the Light Blues to finish the day on 303-6.
Ansari was only 18 runs short of the record individual score for Cambridge in a Varsity match, set by G.Goonesena in 1957.
Day Two
Cambridge continued batting for a further 78 minutes before being all out for 386 with Ed Morse finishing with the impressive figures of 6-102.
Oxford batted for the rest of the day to finish on 141-2, with 2 hours 20 minutes having been lost to 4 separate stoppages for rain.
Day Three
After skipper Ollie Sadler had departed for a gritty 77 runs, the rest of the batting fell away with the last eight wickets falling for just 96 runs, including a last wicket partnership of 37 runs between Tom Froggett and Ed Morse during which the follow on was averted.
Ansari took 4-50 for Cambridge.
At the close of play Cambridge had reached 183-3 in their 2nd innings to take a healthy lead of 305 runs.
Day Four
Cambridge batted on for a further 34 minutes in the morning session, with Ansari (80*) again to the fore, before declaring to leave Oxford with a formidable target of 378 to win in approximately 103 overs.
After a cautious start, Oxford had reached 189-3 at tea, with a draw looking the likely result.
However, a magnificent knock from Neil Kruger (172 in 261 balls) nearly brought Oxford a remarkable victory until he was caught on the boundary with 41 runs needed and 5 overs remaining.
This proved just out of reach with Oxford still needing 23 runs with three wickets left when stumps were drawn.