Another hot afternoon, another toss lost and another chance to bowl first on a stinking hot afternoon. Deprived of his normal partner, Bhupi opened up with Dom, who, by his own admission, produced a pale impersonation of Vijay’s normal control (Happy Anniversary Mrs R). The Knights – a determined and competitive side, keen to continue their meteoric rise through the Kent league structure came into the game with an impressive record sitting in 2nd place in the table. Their openers started quickly before Bupi took the first wicket with another caught and bowled. Dom produced a good ball (one of 3 he bowled) to take his only wicket and the Knights were 2 down for 40, in the 7th over. Searching for control, Irv turned to Abhishek to replace Dom (1 for 32 off 5) and Abhishek duly delivered, with a miserly spell of 9-1-25-1. Bhupi finished with figures of 8-2-1-32 and Irv came on trusting spin to apply to breaks to the Knights’ strong start. It worked, and although wickets didn’t tumble, the scoring rate slowed significantly. However, with the score on 127 for 4 in the 28th, they were well-placed to push on with a big final 12 overs. They reckoned against Jonny and Aayan. Jonny started to regularly pick up wickets, including two caught behind by the ever-improving Keeran, finishing with 6-0-36-4. Meanwhile, at the other end, Aayan, who’s been languishing in the 2s for the last couple of weeks bowled an exceptionally hostile, quick and well-directed spell of 5.3-1-17-3. This was characterised by a huge number of swings and misses as batters couldn’t handle his pace, a super catch by Josh in the covers and demolition of stumps. It was a good fielding performance with the only drop being off a no ball. Special mention to Bhupi’s pal Babu who was faultless in the field.180 all out would need some getting, but the outfield was quick and OE’s were confident.
Irv and Hammer opened up, and after a long first over featuring a hunt in Irv’s car for a new ball, Irv changing bat after hitting the first ball of the innings for four and a mighty 6 over square leg, settled in before Hammer perished to an interesting LBW decision. Abhishek fell 2 balls later caught behind and so Jonny went out to join the untroubled Irv. Jonny’s demise with the score on 40 left us teetering a little, but, Tom, on his 1st xi debut for the club, joined Irv and these two sensibly added 52 for the fourth wicket, taking us past the half way mark before Irv went for a well crafted 56. Keeran joined Tom who was ticking along nicely and Keeran characteristically punished any bad balls brutally, scoring 28 from his partnership of 45 with Tom. Keeran went to a far more plausible LBW (he’s got one right, he’s got one right, he’s got one right – unlike the Mankad or the phantom edge) and Josh strode to the crease, with the Knights’ captain foolishly telling his deep mid wicket fielder to come in 20 yards off the boundary. To be fair, Josh’s fist ball hit the trees by the footpath about 20 yards up. Josh then slowly built his innings of 22 with some disguised leaves and a couple of defensive slogs. Tom joined the fun whipping a 6 over backward square and these two moved us onto 167. Dom had negotiated his way down to number 8 – perhaps challenging Reyhan’s claim to be the best number 8 in the league and Dom duly accompanied Tom to close out the win, aptly with a lovely boundary from Tom, who had guided us home magnificently – all agreed it was great to have a number 5 with serious guns.
Another solid victory and we leapfrog London Knights back into the promotion zone at the halfway point of the season.
MOM – Tom Irwin
DOD – Aayan Patel
Abhishek Jaywant award for being far too good to play at this level – Aayan Patel
Nicola Fuller Safeguarding Award – Adam Fuller
Positive Race relations – Vijay
Hammer Supersupporter – Adam Fuller
Champagne Moment – Josh
James Doyle and Joe Bellingham award for period of sustained dominance – Aayan and Jonny
The Aldi award for shopping for wickets in the bargain basement donated by Irvine Turner – Jonny Nicholls
Sam Pope 30 yard circle award – Sam Pope (too busy winning games single-handedly in Div1)
The Mohammed Fayed Diana Rabbit Hole award - Josh