1st XI
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Sat 13 May 2017  ·  Premier 1st XI
Tenterden CC - 1st XI
274
286/5
Bexley Cricket Club
1st XI
1s win nail biter at Tenterden

1s win nail biter at Tenterden

Stephen Course17 May 2017 - 17:07
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Big runs for AJ and 4 wickets for Stevo the standout performances

The 1s came out on top of a very closely fought fixture at Tenterden on Saturday - a match that would see the overseas players for both teams compose impressive individual innings. 

Both skippers had intentions to bowl first however the coin toss landed (via the shoe of the umpire) in favour of the hosts and Bexley found themselves making first use of what looked to be a very flat wicket. The first 10 overs of the innings were tough going as Laasy and Calum Basey battled to 26-0 with wides providing well over a third of the runs. The new ball swung around for the Tenterden bowlers and credit to the two openers for getting through probably the toughest period of the whole day. Laasy would depart via a fine one handed grab by the Tenterden keeper but Calum carried on his strong early season form compiling 61 before sweeping one to short fine leg shortly after the halfway point. His runs have subsequently earned him a place in the Kent 2nd XI fixture during the week. Aryan Jain and Matt Cross joined forces to push the scoring on with AJ dumping the spinner into the neighbouring field on three separate occasions and Crossy dealing quickly with anything slightly short. George Haley showed glimpses of his destructive nature in a quick fire partnership at the end with AJ who finished agonisingly short of a deserved ton (98*) - mainly due to the good skills of the Tenterden death bowlers who limited us to a little over 80 in the final 10 overs when we had 8 wickets in hand and some 'generously' sized boundaries. 286-5 however was still a pretty impressive performance by the batters following on from our comfortable run chase last week.

With the ball things weren't going to be straightforward when you considering the depth of talent in the Tenterden team and that proved the case as the openers came out playing a few shots, putting pressure on Furzey and Stevo. Jason brought himself on and got rewarded for a couple of tight overs by having Chris Vernon caught at cover by Hales and Jasdev picked up the baton shortly after and dismissed the other opener, caught at midwicket by Furzey. Adam Ball and overseas player Du Plooy were the biggest dangers to the Bexley total and for a period the bowlers held the run-rate at around 6.5 whilst the two batsmen were happy to bide their time and take the partnership deep into the innings. Furzey made the crucial breakthrough having Bally held at cover by Benny and Jasdev again followed up by having Lockhart stumped. It was at this point, with about 150 required from the last 20 overs, that Du Plooy started to unleash a full array of shots and became increasingly difficult to bowl at. He took a liking to Riles, striking him for a 6 in each of his last 5 overs but tight bowling from Benny and then Stevo at the other end saw us collect the handy wickets of Price caught by AJ at point and then Griffin caught by Furzey. As the match reached its climax Bexley made life more difficult by shelling a series of catches. Furzey spilled a catch at long off over the boundary for 4 and the following over Calum juggled one over the rope for 6 during a very tense period of the match. Du Plooy was hitting boundaries at will but Stevo and Benny did a good job of keeping him away from strike and we headed into the final 12 balls defending 18 runs. 

By this stage Andrew Furze was relaying a ball by ball commentary back to the clubhouse and to Dave Sealey on separate phones! Stevo followed up a dot with a wicket - but just when we thought the game might be out of reach of the opposition Du Plooy slogged high into the sky and Jason put down the catch! It was 3 drops in 4 overs though it had to be said none of the catches were remotely simple, but I'm sure Pasky will be putting us through our paces on Thursday! Stevo finished his spell for the day by snaffling a sharp caught and bowled. His 4-49 was a stand out performance on a day where there wasn't much in the favour of the bowlers and for the second year running he showed nerves of steel at the death. 14 runs were required from the last over. Jason's first ball was struck to long on for a single, the second was a dot as Stidds lost a foot race to the stumps as the number 11 wandered about out of his crease and the third ball yielded another single. With 12 required from 3 - Du Plooy (who now had an incredible 120*) lifted one out to long on where Riles steadied himself and pocketed the catch to secure 18 points and disappoint the increasing congregation of Tenterden supporters in the clubhouse.

AJ and Stevo must take the plaudits for their performances but the team as a whole can take great confidence from the win which makes it 2 from 2 in the league so far. We host Lordswood next Saturday where we will be missing Matt Cross as he is involved with Scotland over the weekend, playing two fixtures against Sri Lanka. We wish him luck and hope to see him back the following week!

Match details

Match date

Sat 13 May 2017

Kickoff

12:00

Competition

Premier 1st XI

League position

1
Bexley CC - 1st XI
8
Tenterden CC - 1st XI
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