‘2s back to winning ways with crushing win against the Vine’

A much changed 2XI were at home to league leaders Sevenoaks Vine CC at the club on Saturday looking to bounce back with a win after the disappointing loss against Folkestone CC the week before, this time under a new leader in George Lush. After losing the toss (shock) on what seemed to be a flat deck the Vine put us into bat.

Shaun and Aiden opened the batting and batted carefully putting on 31 before Shaun was triggered after seeming to have smashed the ball onto his pad. Tom Evans came out to join Aiden and the two of them set about grinding the opposition down by batting sensibly through the middle overs. Runs were being accumulated nicely until Tom managed to hit a catch to mid-wicket leaving us 85-2. Abhishek came out at 4 and like in the partnerships beforehand accumulated runs at a steady rate whilst at the other end Aiden reached a well-deserved 50. Once Abhishek was out stumped and Stevo (playing in the 2s as a batsmen) came in and he and Aiden increased the run rate with Stevo running their fielders ragged and Aiden demonstrating his powerful hitting ability. Aiden raced through the 90s with two huge sixes to reach his second 100 in as many games. Aiden was soon out caught at deep mid-wicket for an excellent 107 off 140 balls with the score on 216-4 with 5 overs to spare. Stevo continued to show his power by hitting well down the ground and made a rapid 55 off 35 balls and he and Sam Barton (11* off 6) steered us to a solid score of 243-5 off our 50 overs.

A very good typically traditional Bexley Tea was served up by the Shanks’s and the 2s headed into the field with our spirits high. Fraser and Mark kicked things off and both of them bowled extremely tight up top with Fraser picking up 2 wickets in an over and Mark 1, although it should have been 2 after Mark dropped the easiest of return catches off of his own bowling. By the time these two finished their first spell the Vine were 30-3 off 14 overs. First change bowlers Sam B and myself continued to strangle the Vine batsmen hitting good areas and giving nothing away. Sam B picked up 1 and I picked up 3 wickets in our 7 over spell each (mention to Lushy for taking me off when I could of got a 5fer) leaving the score on 52-7. Zaki and Shaun came on after and cleaned up the tail quickly and we bowled the Vine out for 59 in 32.1 overs to seal a comprehensive 184 run win over the league leaders with everyone in the team playing their part.

The traditional fines and winning beers followed after the game and the 2s look forward to welcoming back some familiar faces next week as we take on local rivals Dartford at Hesketh Park.