High Wycombe captain Nathan Hawkes paid tribute to two of the club’s bowlers after they defied the odds with a record-breaking last-wicket partnership to deny Oxford victory on Saturday.

When Jonathan Burden came to the crease to join Kyle Simmonds, Wycombe were staring down the barrel of defeat with the score at 195-9 chasing 278 to win with 15 overs left in the match.

The number 11 defended valiantly at one end, scoring two runs from 47 balls, while Simmonds went on the offensive, racking up 13 boundaries en route to an unbeaten 60 off 43 balls.

Their 59-run partnership eclipsed the club’s previous record of 51 for the tenth wicket, set against Slough in 2013, and ensured Wycombe remain in the hunt for the Home Counties Division One title.

“After we started off we looked like we were going to chase down the total but after losing eight wickets for 90 runs we were pretty lucky to end up with a draw,” reflected Hawkes. “Kyle shouldn’t be batting at ten but, obviously, with the strength of our batting line-up that’s where he’s been batting. We’ve always known he’s got the potential to go and get runs.

“That’s the first chance he’s had to bat, so it was nice for him to spend some time in the middle, even though it came at a crucial time.”

Simmonds is the club’s overseas player, having come over from South Africa for his debut season in England – a campaign which has seen him become the league’s joint leading wicket taker.

Figures of 4-79 from his 20 overs against Oxford meant the 21-year-old has now bagged 22 wickets so far this term.

Hawkes said: “You don’t know what you’re getting when you get overseas players. You get recommendations but you never know what they’re like until they land in the country. We’ve been fairly lucky getting a good player like Kyle.

“From the first couple of games he played for us we thought he’d be a very good signing, and obviously his stats with the ball – he showed us what he can do with the bat on Saturday – have proved us right.”

Wycombe were seemingly cruising toward an eighth win of the season against the league’s bottom side, but after reaching 141-1 they lost eight wickets for just 54 runs.

Openers Adam Hose (49) and Gavin Baker (65) had set solid foundations, and Hawkes, who won the toss and elected to field, felt conditions at Oxford’s Roman Way ground had benefitted the hosts.

He said: “I don’t think they were better than we expected. I think they got the rub of the green a bit better than us with all the gaps they were finding, hitting it just over people’s heads, balls dropping short and it turned out that they had the better batting conditions.

“We won the toss, it was a fresh wicket and we just thought it would stay together throughout but that wasn’t the case. Once we’d had tea and started the second innings, the pitch broke up and deteriorated pretty rapidly.

“If we’d had a couple more overs, with the way those two were batting, I think we’d have come out on top. I still think knowing the pitch was going to go like that maybe we could have made a different decision at the toss.”

A third match without a win for league leaders Henley kept Wycombe in touch at the top, sitting five points behind the pacesetters in third after being leapfrogged by Banbury.

Third bottom Tring Park visit London Road on Saturday and the captain is in no doubt about what result is acceptable.

“I’m expecting nothing less but a win from us on Saturday, whichever we go about it. Whether we bat first or bowl first, playing at our home ground I expect us to beat anyone,” he said.