Kenton CC 2nd XI 189-9 (45 overs)
Southgate CC 2nd XI 193-6 (37.4 overs)
Kenton is a curious cricket ground; sometimes the short boundaries mean that defending 6 an over feels impossible, sometimes the life and variation in the pitch mean that wickets tumble while runs are very hard to come by. On Saturday the 2nd XI game swung back and forth between the two, producing a match with distinct ebb and flow.
Kenton won the toss, elected to bat and started well; scoring 14 from the first two overs. 12 of those came from Henry Thompson's first over, but he recovered exceptionally well, bowling his 9 straight through to finish with figures of 9-1-29-2. Ben Elders' extra pace meant that he was uncharacteristically expensive and he was replaced by Josh Holmes (9-2-37-1) and he and Henry restricted Kenton beautifully, picking up the occasional wicket. They were well supported by miserly spells by Liam Babwah (7-1-23-1) and Will Mcloughlin (6-0-23-0) and a sharp direct hit runout from Raj Patel. Kenton kept wickets in hand which meant they were able to accelerate towards the end of the innings, their number four Oryakheil (74) surprisingly having more success against Ben's second spell than Ollie Bellwood's part time off spin. Ollie (5-1-17-2) was initially asked to bowl just the one over required before ECB restrictions would allow Will to resume, but as he produced a maiden he ended up closing out the innings. The 190 required for victory seemed very achievable given the value offered by the ground, but Ollie's success raised concerns about how difficult a spin heavy attack might make things. However, it was to be Kenton’s opening seam pair that caused us the most problems.
Southgate's innings started in exact opposite fashion to the hosts' as their opening bowler removed Dec O'Leary for a duck and Raj for 5 in his first three overs. With the score at 5-2 Max Joseph (45) and A Saeed (62) began to cautiously rebuild and were eventually rewarded with bad balls to put away to the short boundaries. Adeel was in particularly imperious form; caressing glorious cover drives and taking 17 from one over of the first change bowler who to that point had looked threatening. Now well ahead of the rate, the pair played watchfully as a double bowling change and spread field meant they were now facing S Butt's dangerous combination of big turning off breaks and quicker balls and the slow seamers of a youngster who was far less threatening, but difficult to score off. Max eventually succumbed to the latter, having added 108 for the third wicket with Adeel. His departure brought Scott Ellis to the crease and the skipper's approach of simply whacking the youngster proved to be a much more effective method. Scott hit a destructive 44 from 33 balls to take us within 25 runs of victory. Adeel departed quickly afterwards which saw the feel of the game change once more. With two new men at the crease scoring again became more difficult, but with many overs in hand Ollie and Liam were able to take occasional singles, before Liam finished things with two large 6s that more than adhered to the local rules.
A good team performance meant Southgate were worthy winners before a downpour produced a rainbow, which I only mention as I plan on using a photo of it as the match report image.
Max Joseph