Oxford twice built up a winning position against Burnham only to end up hanging on for a draw as rain ended proceedings at Rover Cowley on Saturday.

In the only Division 1 game to be played in the Serious Cricket Home Counties Premier League after the recent deluge, bottom club Oxford were hoping to take advantage by pulling off a vital victory.

And for much of the match, they looked like achieving it.

Having put Burnham into bat, they reduced the visitors to 67-7. But the Bucks side re-covered to 150 all out.

This total seemed in reach when Oxford stood at 99-3.

But a dramatic collapse saw them slump to 128-9 before rain wiped out the final 12 overs.

Amazingly after all the recent rain, the match started on time, and Oxford were pleased to have won the toss.

Seamers Brad Sutherland and Tom Geeson-Brown soon had Burnham in trouble.

Sutherland dismissed danger man Aftab Khan for nought and Burnham were in big trouble at the fall of their seventh wicket.

But they were rescued by Obaid Sarwar, who dominated with an unbeaten 67 from 103 balls, hitting six fours, having been dropped twice.

He helped Burnham reach 150 from 52.3 of their 65-over allocation before spinners Francois Vainker and Shamilal Mendis wrapped up the innings Both Sutherland and Geeson-Brown returned 4-42.

Following a short break for rain, Oxford had 53 overs in which to try and record their second win of the campaign.

Despite the early loss of Dan King, the hosts were going well thanks to useful innings from Chris Sandbach, Stewart Laudat and overseas signing Ryan Canning. But none played the match-winning knock requi-red.

At 99-3, things looked good, but Oxford lost five wickets for ten runs as the middle order disintegrated against Aftab’s off-spin.

It was a struggle from then on, but just after they had lost their ninth wicket, heavy rain ended what could have been an intriguing finish.

By playing, Oxford had accrued a useful nine points, compared with the six picked up by those teams whose games had been abandoned.

However, they are still nine poiints adrift at the bottom of the table Banbury’s match at home to Bishops Stortford was abandoned due to a waterlogged ground.