Renouf and Ozanne rescue Cobo's weekend

MARK RENOUF arrived at Total Cobo as a bowler with the added responsibility of managing the first team. He went home from the KGV on Saturday having struck a match-winning fifty, kept alive the club's hopes of Carey Olsen Championship success and softened the blow of having lost their unbeaten record in Barclays Premier One the previous evening.

Renouf, with the help of second-team captain TJ Ozanne, rescued a situation that had looked dire when Mavericks posted a useful 198 for eight and thanks to their South African quickie, Justin Scriven, had Cobo reeling at two for two at the end of the first over with both skipper Peter Vidamour and Jeremy Frith back in the pavilion.

'It shows we can win without Frithy doing it for us,' said a relieved Vidamour.

'I was nice to win in that all our top five failed but we still got through with others doing the job,' he said.

'I thought TJ played a really mature innings and Mark Renouf's was totally unexpected.

'It was a make-or-break game for us.

'But now we've won we can actually go on to win it. But we will probably have to win our last three and we will need to play better to do so.'

Mavericks left the ground no doubt wondering how on earth they had lost from a position with Cobo 75 for five and all their top batters dismissed.

What they did not account for though was the stubbornness and belligerence of Ozanne and Renouf.

The former was already well set when Renouf arrived at 92 for six at the fall of Justin Ferbrache's wicket.

Together they added 63 priceless runs, with Ozanne dominant and generally playing the sort of watchful innings which he is capable of, but so rarely produces.

Encouraged by Renouf, he batted their side back into the game, but when Aussie Justin Meades returned for a second spell at the park end Ozanne went for a big drive and was given out caught at the wicket.

Ozanne's reaction to the decision was one of horror, having believed he had struck the ground, not the ball. Cobo were beaten, surely.

With three overs left the target was 27.

One over later it was 20, but Phil Cox?s final one, the 44th and penultimate of the innings, went for 15 with Renouf smashing the second of his two sixes as well as his fourth four. A push for two took him to fifty and a single off the last ball gave him the strike for the final over with just five wanted.

Three pushed twos later it was all over.

The result was hard on Mavericks and, in particular, Paul Wakeford and Scriven.

The South African bowled superbly for his four for 33 and earlier he had hit a quick 25 in a sixth-wicket partnership with Wakeford, who finished stranded on 94 not out.

Dropped twice as he approached his ton, Wakeford, like all 43-year-olds slowing in reactions and speed between the wickets, batted his side into a decent position after a pedestrian start.

Afterwards, he said he was getting tired of scoring nineties, his last century being as far back as 1986.

'I've probably scored six or seven 90s since then.

'I didn't get too much of the strike near the end,' he added.

Cobo's win lifted the gloom of their first 11-run defeat by Optimists, who are now favourites for the short-game title after six straight wins.

Optimists were indebted greatly to their two overseas stars, Indian Ami Banerjee and South African Divan van der Heever, and the Cobo wicket-keeper Justin Ferbrache.

The latter, so dependable as a norm, spilled Banerjee before he had scored double figures at a stage when Optimists were struggling at 36 for three.

But after he put Banerjee down off a straightforward chance off Liam Smyth's bowling, the Indian took charge and with 48 off 37 deliveries steered his side to a useful 141 for nine from 22 overs.

Cobo again utilised Frith as an opener and he did his bit with a fine 47, but apart from fellow opener Matt Oliver, who scored 31, there was little support.

The first-wicket pair were split by a Steve Queripel slower ball and once Oliver had departed, van der Heever's pace ensured against quick scoring.

His five rapid overs went for 21 and his capture of Frith clinched the game.