Cambridge had no right to turn this into a contest. A combination of quality bowling and magic in the field restricted Oxford to an underwhelming 137/7, before the dark blues responded by ripping the heart out of Cambridge’s batting lineup. The light blues resembled a cricketing corpse at 0/3 and were crumbling once again at 57/6, but were resurrected by James Cake’s remarkable refusal to surrender. His fantastic 55 was eventually thwarted by Oxford’s outstanding spinners, who twirled through Cambridge’s resurgence and sealed a 13-run win.

With Oxford put into bat under moody skies, George Roberts decided to rupture a sedate first six balls by whipping Stan Norman’s opening delivery to the fence. Crouching unorthodoxly at the crease, the dark blue opener unleashed an early explosion at the Cambridge captain, spanking a short pitched delivery deep into the stands. Another length ball from Norman clattered into the plastic seats once again, as Roberts smoked Oxford to 24/0 in a resounding end to the second over.

After the dark blues flexed their early batting muscle, Le Riche responded by cranking the sinews. The pace merchant castled Amogh Karpe with a venomous inswinger, before wrestling back momentum with a high-class wicket-maiden. A subsequently resurgent Oxford led Norman to ring the bowling changes, shrewdly introducing the parsimonious Happe along with a sprinkling of variety through left arm tweaker Alex Davis. Roberts had blended assurance with audacity for a chanceless 29 off 19, but Davis’s stingy fingerspin impelled him to ponder an ill-advised second run, only to be sent packing by James Cake’s bullet arm. Pegged back to 48-2, Oxford’s early fireworks had fallen flat.

Cambridge sought to consolidate the relative calm by whipping up a familiar winning formula, fellow southpaw slow bowler Hughes-Pinnan linking up with Davis after they put Oxford in a spin to win last year’s encounter. Jai Chandra’s attempt to anchor the dark blue innings soon reached inertia, and his attempt to reignite a crawling 24 was caught by Cake at deep midwicket. A similar eleventh over itch proved to be Henry Nicholl’s undoing, curbing Oxford to 72/4. After trying to smash Hughes-Pinan off his relentlessly consistent length, Nicholls found himself stumped for nine by Alex Ferreira’s fast hands.

“It was an innings full of spurts of vibrancy, stifled by frequent scalps”

With the innings meandering and the run rate barely hovering above half a dozen, skipper Saqlain Choudary sought to inject some impetus. However, his attempted rekindling was swiftly extinguished when he sought to pinch a second run and was promptly dismissed by yet more fleet-footed fielding. New man Toby Brown then offered instant promise of ignition, cutting his first ball for four, but Oxford could only amble to a collective century after some 96 deliveries.

Come the 16th over, and Cambridge cranked the speed gun back up, unleashing Mitchell’s bounding right arm pace and snaring another Oxford scalp. His death bowling clinic led a pinned-down Brown to try and create something from nothing. A daredevil single swiftly met a familiar fate, courtesy of William Happé’s razor-sharp run out. A flat 108/6 received a new lease of life after keeper-batter Robbie Hardwick slammed his second ball for six, before continuing to light up the afternoon gloom by fearlessly ramping an attempted yorker for four.

The first ball of the final over received similarly outrageous treatment, scooped to the fine leg fence as brazen batting provided a late lift. Boldness soon became recklessness however, after Hardwick succumbed in all-too-familiar fashion, gifting the light blues a fourth run out of the afternoon. Scrambled singles continued to reign supreme for Oxford, who finished on 137/7. It was an innings full of spurts of vibrancy, stifled by frequent scalps.

A meagre boundary to one side rendered a middling target even less imposing, with a venerable Lord’s seeking to protect their prized centre wicket. But the dark blue bowlers were unfussed by boundary sizes, and instead decided to simply blow Cambridge away. Two dot balls applied an early squeeze, before Norman carved Chris Carnegie to backward point for catching practice. After uprooting the Jersey international, Oxford’s left arm seamer refused to cede an inch, setting an ominous tone with an outstanding wicket maiden.

“Oxford’s brilliant spin brigade continued to find equally happy hunting ground at a more verdant Lord’s”

Exposed early, a vulnerable Cambridge were then ripped into by Taylor’s left arm spin. Within eight balls, Cambridge’s past and present captains were consigned to the changing rooms, after Ferreira was skittled by a southpaw dart. Happé then tried to land a counterpunch but ended up being the one to taste blood, stumped for Cambridge’s third duck in the space of ten devastating balls. With the scorecard grisly, Roxborough burst the Oxford bubble with a crisp cover drive for a coveted boundary.

A glimmer of hope seemed to be emerging out of the early rubble when Roxborough launched Narayan’s legbreaks over mid off for four more. But positive signs were torn down in the fifth over by a flatter Narayan delivery that flicked the top edge of Roxborough’s attempted cut, leaving the light blues 18/4 and in the lurch once more. New man Le Riche then tried to jolt life into a shellshocked innings, as Cake quietly accumulated. After 25 balls of boundary famine, the all-rounder unfurled a sumptuous cross-batted cover drive to finally give the light blues something to feast on. Nevertheless, at the halfway mark, the dark blues were indisputably dominant, while Cambridge stood 42/4, facing a 96-run mountain for victory.

However, having recently honed their craft on a tour of the subcontinent, Oxford’s brilliant spin brigade continued to find equally happy hunting ground at a more verdant Lord’s. Captain Choudhary spearheaded the pack, rattling Le Riche’s off-stump in the eleventh over to curtail a promising 21. Already outfoxed, Cambridge could scarcely afford slip-ups, but next over, Ramisetty timed his second ball straight into the waiting hands of midwicket. Now teetering towards the precipice, a crucial shred of fortune then came Cambridge’s way. With the light blues seemingly drifting towards their doom, needing a mammoth 65 off the final 30, when Oxford keeper Hardwick shelled a nick from Cake it seemed potentially insignificant.

“Cambridge came close to scaling Everest, only to be sent crashing down by Oxford’s victorious spinners”

But a reprieved Cake was determined to make borrowed time count, slamming a towering six over the long boundary to begin the sixteenth over, before pillaging 13 more runs off a stunned Pandey. A warrior’s half-century soon followed, after Cake dispatched the once impregnable Narayan into the stadium’s second tier. An improbable victory charge was gathering momentum until Oxford’s leggie returned fire, extinguishing Mitchell’s supporting hand and leaving the light blues 101/7.

With three overs to go and Cambridge craving boundaries, number nine Harry Simpson unleashed a stunning switch hit for four. Choudhary retorted by stemming the flow with watertight lines, meaning Cambridge would need to plunder 28 off the final 12 balls. The dark blues turned back to Carnegie to kill off any remaining dregs of a Cambridge comeback, only for Simpson to club him for a towering six. The tailender’s cameo went from invaluable to incredible when he tickled a scoop to the third man fence for four more, the equation now a slightly more feasible 15 off the final over.

Mounting optimism proved a cruel mistress for Cambridge, however, as Choudhary’s class dealt a fatal blow to Cambridge’s revival. The nerveless left-arm spinner cleaned up Cake in an emphatic start to the over, ending a phenomenal 53, which had taken Cambridge from the brink of a thrashing to an unlikely victory charge. Champagne corks started popping next ball, after a flatter Choudary delivery thudded into Hughes-Pinnan’s pads, leaving the light blues 9 down and only able to delay the inevitable.

A sole run off a limp final over saw the dark blues snatch back the men’s Varsity title, Cambridge’s late renaissance not enough to overturn their initial oblivion. The fact that Cake and co somehow created genuine tension in the closing stages was rather astonishing; the light blues had been staring down the barrel at 0/3. A stunning display of opening bowling served up three ducks in ten balls, and even faint hopes were hanging by a thread at 57/6. Cambridge then came close to scaling Everest, only to be sent crashing down by Oxford’s victorious spinners.