Oxfordshire Under 14 Boys v Gloucestershire Under 14 Boys

ECB U14 Cup Group 3

Oxfordshire 222-8 (50 overs)

Gloucestershire 226-6 (50 overs)

Gloucestershire won by four wickets

GLOUCESTERSHIRE Under 14s kicked off their ECB Cup campaign with a four wicket victory over Oxfordshire.

Charlie Brennan (60 not out) sealed the win with a towering six as the visitors chased down their target off 222 in the 43rd over.

Earlier, Oxon won the toss and chose to bat on an excellent pitch.

The opening pair of Brennan and Will Gilderson bowled with pace and were unlucky not to make a breakthrough during their opening spells.

Openers Turner and Laird rode their luck but remained unruffled, capitalizing on anything over pitched or offline. Together they added 91 for the first wicket before leg spinner Alex Oliver struck in his second over - the 26th of the innings – to remove Turner for 38.

He followed it up by removing the other opener – Laird – for the same score in his next over to slow Oxon’s momentum.

The home side rebuilt with a third wicket stand of 41 before Oliver picked up two more wickets in quick succession to reduce them to 154-4. He finished his spell with 4-43 from eight overs, having removed the entire Oxon top four.

Following the second drinks break at 34 overs, the home side came out firing as they looked to up the scoring rate.

But despite putting Gloucestershire under pressure with some good running between the wickets they struggled to get back on top for a sustained period.

Gilderson (2-44), Brennan (1-27) and Will Hope (1-8) all picked up late wickets as Oxfordshire close on 222-8.

In reply, Gloucestershire got off to a flying start through Thornbury's Praneel Choughule who took the attack to the Oxon bowlers.

Together with Hope they sped along at more than a run a ball for the first six overs. The introduction of off spinner Price (3-32) slowed the rate and he made the breakthrough, bowling Hope (13) in the eighth over with the score on 41.

At the other end, Choughule showed no signs of slowing down. He reached his fifty from 42 balls with consecutive boundaries and went on to reach a scintillating 74 from 58 balls.

He was finally bowled by Price with the score on 106 in the 18th over.

Stan Brown (19) followed soon after and when Oliver became Price’s third victim the Glos reply was faltering on 119-4. Debutant Joe Durie then came into join skipper Joe Moss (Frenchay) at the crease.

Moss dug in but Durie was quickly into his stride. He took advantage of loose deliveries and a number of free hits as he struck a fearless 30 at better than a run a ball.

When Durie departed he was replaced by Brennan. He scored the majority of the runs in a partnership of forty with Moss before the latter fell with thirty still needed. At this stage Brennan was going up through the gears and he continued to accelerate.

Having scored twenty from his first 17 balls he went into overdrive, smashing forty from his next 12 balls including four huge sixes down the ground.

His powerful hitting sealed victory with 7.2 overs still remaining.