Kennet Valley [A at H] Match Report
Whilst it wasn't our intended venue, we did benefit from the away team doing teas on Sunday as we looked for a once unthinkable 5th consecutive victory.
As Kennet Valley returned to the Recreational Ground of dreams, our starting 11 along with umpire Malcolm and our trusty band of loyal supporters, thoughts may have been cast back to our previous outing against this side. In a 30 over match, the visitors had scored an impressive 213 for the loss of just 4 wickets... a Bazball 7+ runs an over. Our response was 73 runs short as we finished 140/8.
Uncle Al opened up proceedings from the village end, and for any supporter who arrived late (or player... namely hungover Will), Al bowled some gorgeously-hittable balls... Rich took an incredible catch at mid-wicket on the 5th ball of the day to send their first opener back to the clubhouse. A brilliant start, especially come the final ball of the first over when the new batsman at the crease hit almost exactly the same shot, with the same result... brilliant Rich! 2 down... and even better as this pair jointly hit 73 runs against us last time... we'd just wiped out their previous advantage.
At the other end, Jeremy kept things super tight, going for just 2 runs an over. Off to a flyer, stopping pretty much everything in the field, we looked like a solid unit. Even if it did involve stopping the ball with our rear end or emulating a wheelie bin lid.
Sean brought about the first bowling change as the batsman struggled to put willow to leather... and when they did, Jeremy didn't drop the catch, but instead, missed it entirely, a story a few of us repeated thanks to the contrasting sky above. Come his third over, Sean trapped the batsman for a plum lbw and literally, took things into his own hands with a caught bowled, adding another duck to the visitors scorebook.
As our double spin attack came into force, Will fought through a pounding head and grabbed a couple of well-timed wickets to rock the visitors boat, as we said hello to their tailenders. Meanwhile Harry asked more questions of the batsman than in the upcoming Quiz (& Wine) night... still a few tickets left (hint hint), and deserved wickets for the quality of his efforts.
As Jeremy returned, so did our ability to catch in the field. A nice straight drive down the ground from Kennet Valley's most dangerous looking batsman (29 off 11) came straight towards me like a dart heading into treble 20. I held on for my first catch of the season and Jeremy got the wicket his bowling most definitely deserved.
They finished 126/7 off 35 overs. At a run rate of 3.6, we'd all but halved the damage from July's fixture. That in itself felt like a reward.
Right batting. Jamie, the usual 50, except he played on, so only scored 20 (a score many of us in this team would be happy with). I had to look twice... seriously. But the intent was brilliant, pushing again for every run, we put their field under a lot of pressure, and they made mistakes which brought the odd drop too, they got tighter and tighter to us, which paid dividends later as we went 'over the top'. Things slowed in the middle as we went from 31 off 7 to 35 off 12 overs (2 of which were wides). I felt the tide might be turning against us, as we looked like we might drown ourselves in dot balls, then Rich smashed a 4, turning the tide back on the visitors.
Alan only just missed a jaffa which, had contact been made, would have emulated his gorgeous boundary against Nomads (footage available on Youtube). This brought about the introduction of Harry (Brook). In case you've not seen the match report from the T20, Harry only hits 6s and singles (and the odd 1-bounce 4). But times were tough, and at the 20 over mark we sat at 60/5, behind the visitors who were 71/4 at the same stage. Nevertheless our skipper opened up his account with a boundary and Harry equalled him at the other end. As the visitors crept closer to the batsman to stop the ones, Chris went over the top and helped himself to a 6. And Harry followed suit, smashing 6, 6 and 4 off 3 consecutive balls to dismiss the bowler's hopes and dreams of a win well into next week.
As the scores tied, I could see that Harry wanted to finish things off in style, and did so with a stunning 6 to bring about his half century and to finish the game 132/5 off just 27 overs... a casual 10+/over off the last 7 and an early departure to the pub.
Another win for the team. And a great day out for everyone involved.
A huge thanks to Summer who captured things from the sidelines and to Malcolm for umpire duties.
Our last outing of the season is against WANCC (the team who inspired our baggy hats, so bring them along if you've got them). It's an earlier start, with a bar, BBQ and some half-time women's cricket in the mix too!
Let's finish the season off in style.
Can you believe it... we still haven't got all the responses for Sunday's game 😂
And if you haven't already, please support Jeremy and co and get your tickets for the Wine & Quiz night on 8th September. We've got tables for team players so let me know if you want in.
Go well. Cheers.