Sevenoaks Vine’s out-ground in Otford is a stunner. Irv was smart enough to win the toss and choose to bat first on a great track that generated nearly 500 runs in the afternoon. Facing the quickest bowler we had seen thus far, Irv and Louis looked a little less than comfortable at one end (Louis attempted ramp was an innovative possible solution), but Irv made hay at the other end, with an extra cover six off the first ball of over two, and indeed, the opening partnership of 71 was broken in the 9th over, with Irv already having reached his half century. Richie came in a struck a few classy shots but was then undone by one of their young spinners. Louis was still there and finding increased fluency as he built a partnership with Keeran. In all the pair put on 75, including two champagne moment shots from Louis (see below), however, as Louis got close to his fifty, he was smartly stumped. Jack looked good for a little while, but with the instruction from the skipper to push the rate upwards (we’d only scored 171 off 30), he was gone for 6, bringing Bushy to the crease. Taking a few balls to play himself in (he got off the mark with a 6), this partnership spelt trouble for the Vine’s tiring bowlers and fielders. They put on 85 off 8 overs, with both Keeran and Bushy playing some brutal strokes, especially favouring those of the flat-batted variety. Bushy went for 28 and by this stage we were frantically counting up Keeran’s total to see how close he was to 3 figures. Nick strode out to join him with 1 intent – to get Keeran on strike. He did this brilliantly, it was Keeran who couldn’t quite find the last over boundary he needed to rack up 3 figures – however, 98 not out was a wonderful innings, mixing fine technique and brutal power-hitting to take apart the Vine bowling attack.
Defending 266 should have been a comfortable task, but there were a couple of wobbly moments on the way, not least caused by seeing the class demonstrated by the Vine’s opener whose 35 was almost effortless and came on super-quick time. It was Nick opening the bowling who did for him with a great delivery, having already got the other opener thanks to a smart short extra catch from Irv. Its this chaos that Nick can bring, with batsmen knowing that somewhere in each over will be one good ball, that can be unsettling for even the best batters. At the other end, Noah bowled another very well controlled spell, taking one wicket and keeping the scoring under control at a time that the Vine had set off ahead of the 6.5 an over required. Nick settled in nicely later in his spell, taking no more wickets, but going at less than 4 an over. Jonny replaced him once it was time to take pace off the ball, and he bowled admirably, taking two important wickets and going for just over 4 an over at a time when Vine were looking to push the scoring rate on. Jacob replaced Noah and suffered a little from this attempt to score faster, unlucky to go wicketless in his four overs.
With another burst of acceleration after drinks, Irv brought himself on to add more control (definitely not to try to clean up the tail – he’s better than that – he tells us). It worked well, his 8 overs going for just 23 as the game drifted out of Sevenoaks’ reach, especially thanks to the two wickets he took. Jack came on for a curious three over spell which included one maiden and two wickets as well as 28 runs – he suffered at the hands of some tail end bashing. Noah and Nick both tried to prise apart the last wicket partnership but with no success, Hammer was handed the ball for the 40th over. All were shocked when the skipper, with the trap set, managed to spill the chance at deep mid-wicket, and despite a near stumping later in the over, Vine managed, just, to survive this hellish last over.
MOM – Keeran – great to see him back to his best
DOD – Irv – drop costs us a point (and more importantly denied Hammer a wicket)
Dom Perignon classic champagne moment – Louis’ cover drive for four
Freixenet (its new, its fresh, not stuffy and old) moment – Louis beautifully struck reverse sweep up the hill for four
Wuster sauce moment – Irv….in a standard bitter follow up to a caught behind that their umpire didn’t hear
Maidstone moment – Jack unloading drinks in the wooded area
Vijay Raman my bat my ball award – Irv
The Nick Smith award for the most chaotic bowling spell of the day - Jack