Dominic Ostler

Dominic Piers Ostler (born 15 July 1970) is a former cricketer who played in first-class, List A and Twenty20 cricket for Warwickshire between 1990 and 2004.[1] He also played for the England A cricket team in 1995 and 1996 in first-class and List A games. He was born in Solihull.

Dominic Ostler
Personal information
Full nameDominic Piers Ostler
Born (1970-07-15) 15 July 1970
Solihull, Warwickshire, England
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm medium
RoleBatsman
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1990–2004Warwickshire
First-class debut26 May 1990 Warwickshire v Worcestershire
Last First-class2 August 2003 Warwickshire v India A
List A debut20 May 1990 Warwickshire v Gloucestershire
Last List A27 July 2004 Warwickshire v Lancashire
Career statistics
Competition FC LA T20
Matches 205 275 5
Runs scored 10,856 7,238 56
Batting average 34.90 32.16 11.20
100s/50s 16/67 3/50 0/0
Top score 225 134* 23
Balls bowled 251 21 –
Wickets 1 1 –
Bowling average 295.00 14.00 –
5 wickets in innings 0 0 –
10 wickets in match 0 0 –
Best bowling 1/46 1/4 –
Catches/stumpings 259/– 98/– 3/–
Source: CricketArchive, 27 July 2015

Ostler played for most of his career in senior cricket as a specialist right-handed middle-order batsman; he bowled occasionally at right-arm medium pace, was an outstanding fielder at slip and also very occasionally kept wicket.[1] He was a regular in the Warwickshire side pretty much from his debut to the end of 2002, apart from a period in the late 1990s when he lost confidence and form; a second downturn in form led to his retirement in 2003, though he appeared in a few List A matches the following season. He remains as of 2015 a regular player in high-quality Birmingham area club cricket.[2]

Ostler made a low-key entry into Warwickshire's first team, but in his third match in 1990 his steadiness, batting at No 8, helped his side to take a somewhat contrived victory over Derbyshire after Derbyshire has forfeited their entire second innings; he scored 42 not out to seal the win after a late collapse.[3] His highest score of this first season was only 71, but he was consistent and scored 510 runs at an average of exactly 30.00 in his eleven games.[1] The following year, when he was awarded his county cap, he played regularly and made 1284 runs at an average of 36.68; the season also contained his first first-class century, an innings of 120 not out that saved the match against Kent after Warwickshire had been forced to follow on.[4]

That 1991 season set the pattern for the next four years of Ostler's cricket career: he was a consistent if rarely flamboyant scorer and was ever-present in Warwickshire's middle order in both first-class and List A matches. He passed 1000 first-class runs in a season in 1992, 1993 and 1994, and was only 17 runs short in 1995.[1] In each of these seasons, there were large-scale centuries from Ostler. In 1992, he made 192 against Surrey; the following season, the Essex away match produced a score of 174 for him; in 1994, he scored 186 against Yorkshire; and in 1995 his first double-century was a score of 208 in the home match with Surrey.[5][6][7][8]

In the winter of 1995–96, Ostler was picked for the England A tour to Pakistan, where he played in three of the five first-class matches; in the game against Pakistan A, he top-scored in England A's first innings with 68, but in the other tour matches he was not successful.[9] The England A team re-assembled for the first representative match of the 1996 season to play against a team called "The Rest"; England A won the game, but Ostler scored only 13 and he was not then selected for any further representative matches.[10] Ostler's cricket career then went into a severe decline across the rest of the 1990s to the point where, in 1998, he played in only six first-class matches for Warwickshire, scoring just 173 runs, of which 133 came in a single unbeaten innings against the less-than-arduous bowling of Oxford University.[1] His form in List A cricket remained better for longer, but in both 1998 and 1999 he played in only around half of the county's games.[1]

Ostler's return to form and favour came in the 2000 season, when he scored 1096 runs at a career-best average of 49.81; he was also granted a benefit in the 2000 season by Warwickshire.[1] He was heading for similar success in 2001, averaging 47.27 with the bat and having taken 22 catches in just 10 first-class matches, when his season came to an abrupt end with an elbow injury in the July fixture against Derbyshire.[1] Earlier in the 2001 season he had recorded his highest one-day cricket score with an unbeaten innings of 134 against Gloucestershire.[11] He returned for 2002 and scored 1039 first-class runs at an average of 43.29, taking 24 catches in 14 matches as well; the runs included an innings of 225 late in the season against Yorkshire off just 240 balls, which was his highest first-class score.[12] But the following season, 2003, he played only a few games, losing his place in a rotational squad system and not regaining it, and he played just three List A games and one Twenty20 game in 2004 before retiring.

References
  1. "Dominic Ostler". www.cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  2. For example: "Scorecard: Knowle & Dorridge v Berkswell". www.cricketarchive.com. 18 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  3. "Scorecard: Derbyshire v Warwickshire". www.cricketarchive.com. 16 June 1990. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  4. "Scorecard: Kent v Warwickshire". www.cricketarchive.com. 4 June 1991. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  5. "Scorecard: Surrey v Warwickshire". www.cricketarchive.com. 17 July 1992. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  6. "Scorecard: Essex v Warwickshire". www.cricketarchive.com. 24 June 1993. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  7. "Scorecard: Yorkshire v Warwickshire". www.cricketarchive.com. 18 August 1994. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  8. "Scorecard: Warwickshire v Surrey". www.cricketarchive.com. 4 May 1995. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  9. "Scorecard: Pakistan A v England A". www.cricketarchive.com. 8 December 1995. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  10. "Scorecard: England A v The Rest". www.cricketarchive.com. 20 April 1996. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  11. "Scorecard: Warwickshire v Gloucestershire". www.cricketarchive.com. 29 May 2001. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  12. "Scorecard: Warwickshire v Yorkshire". www.cricketarchive.com. 12 September 2002. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
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