After letting victory slip through the fingers at Wembley, Kenton looked to start the second half of the season in a positive manner against an Uxbridge side who could be fighting the promotion battle. Captain Sachin Patel and wicketkeeper Mark Sweeney were away. Jonathan Mills was back this week, and Sami Haider returned for the second half of the season, suggesting a boost to Kenton’s survival hopes. Kaushal Patel stepped in as wicketkeeper!

Kenton won the toss and elected to bowl on a flat wicket, previously played on by Middlesex in the week. Uxbridge got off to a slow start, with only 29 from the first 14 overs, losing 2 wickets, one each for Kumar and Aman. This new Kenton opening bowling partnership has restricted teams well, and the pressure was soon released after Aman had finished his spell and Mohsin Zubair came on to bowl. Uxbridge doubled their score in the space of 5 overs, with Zubair bowling 3 overs for 23. K.Patel was doing a job behind the wicket, letting no byes through for the first 20, and taking a stumping off the bowling of The Pro, leaving Uxbridge 3 down for 66 at drinks. Sami came on a few before drinks to test the waters, and although starting a little rusty, only went for 1 run in his first 2 overs. Uxbridge’s no.3 bat looked in fine form, playing his way to a fine 100, a stumping missed while he was in his 90’s with batsmen contributing from the other end. Finally a chance came K.Patels way, with Sami bowling a peach to the settled batsman, caught, stumped, the lot! David Sweeney came on at the death, and despite being smashed in the ankle after some good football, played a key role in restricting the opposition with a mix of seam and spin. With wickets falling at regular intervals, Uxbridge managed a modest 213 for 8. Not a bad job from Kenton in the field, or from K.Patel behind the stumps, only 4 byes!

Kenton looked positive when chasing, starting off with a flury of shots from Mills and Jooma, the ball being dispatched to the boundary regularly. After Mills was given LBW off a full toss, Jooma and Ashraf continued to keep the rate at 5’s, but a questionable LBW decision from the umpire saw Jooma (48) throw his toys out of the pram, eventually resulting in an ‘imaginary yellow card’. Ashraf looked in brilliant form on his way to a fine 53, and even hitting a maximum! Kumar got going with some big shots, including a maximum over extra cover. But when The Pro got himself out, Kenton started to lose wickets regularly. Rishi Kotecha provided an action replay of Kumars dismissal, followed by a brilliant catch to dismiss K.Patel and some smart bowling to get rid of stand in captain D.Singh. Kenton, who were cruising towards 10 points, were now looking to save the game, 7 down from 40 overs. After initially passing the 4pt draw mark of 175, Zubair and Sweeney comfortably negotiated for the rest of the game, earning Kenton a 4pt draw. Sensible cricket from the not out batsmen to secure points for a struggling Kenton side.

The second half of the season got off to an ‘OK’ start, but with previously bottom Bessborough beating top of the league Wembley, Kenton move to bottom of the table. A win against Indian Gymkhana next week would see Kenton go above them, and maybe up a few more positions depending on league results.

Kenton played top of the league Wembley in a game that could have kick started their season before the second half began. With the league tight for points, this game was make or break for the Kenton boys who needed some points under their belt.
 
But after bowling Wembley out for 138, Kenton collapsed through a combination of poor LBW decisions and getting cleaned up. Kenton bowled out for 111.  
Second half of the season begins next Saturday at Uxbridge, with skipper Sachin away.

After losing the toss, Kenton were put in. Whilst all the umpires, opposition and opener Schopun Jooma were ready to play, Kumar ‘The Pro’ helped to delay the start further. The Pro came out late, and was back in the hutch after just the first delivery of the game caught behind, his bad form continuing. Some runs were put on the board before pushed at one on a slow popping deck and was caught by short mid off. Kenton 2 down with 24 on the board, with Faisal Ashraf at the crease. Deepak Singh entered at no. 4 looking to get himself into form after a poor run, but he soon departed, as did Mark Sweeney, leaving Kenton in a difficult position at 33-4 from 12 overs. With a potential 32 overs still to bat, it looked unlikely that Kenton would post a suitable total. With Ashraf free flowing at the crease, K.Patel joined him to steady the innings. Ashraf continued in fine form, hitting boundary after boundary on his way to a difficult 37 before eventually being caught and bowled by Scantlebury (NL). Following Ashrafs dismissal, David Sweeney soon fell to the same bowler, prompting the arrival of the injured captain Sachin Patel. As S.Patel looked to push on, it became clear that it would be impossible to bat on this wicket for anybody. S.Patel was caught at mid off, off the bowling of Wakeford, whobowled 6 maidens from his 7 overs. With the score now 59-7, Mohsin Zubair and Jameel Shah fell quickly, leaving K.Patel with debutant no.11 Aman Sheraani to salvage the innings. After batting for over an hour and a half, K.Patel was the last wicket to fall, leaving Kenton with a total of 74 from 35.3 overs. North London required 75 runs to win with plenty of overs to bat.

With Shah and Sheraani opening the bowling, Kenton soon left the opposition 2-2 in 2 overs. Sheraani took 2 wickets in his first over for the 1^st XI, and was on a hat-trick. However, North London managed to push the total forward with no.1 and no.4 batting steadily at the crease, and from 17 overs they were 40-2. Controversy flaired as appeals for catches off the glove (more than once) were turned down by the umpires. However, Zubair came on in the 18^th and took a wicket with his first over. At 42-3, the game was still in North London’s favour. The Pro then came on in an attempt to influence the game, however it was clear that spin would not do the trick on this deck. With the pace bowlers continuing, David Sweeney came on and took the wiket of no.5 who had accumulated some runs in a wicket maiden. Zubair had the luck on his side after dismissing no.4 LBW, and in his subsequent over took 2 more wickets and was on a hat-trick. The score now 64-7, wickets had tumbled quickly. Further controversy came as the game came to its conclusion when appeal after appeal for LBW was turned down, but Kenton continued to fight after getting a sniff in. Sheraani came back on and immediately took the wicket of the new batsman, and Shah came back on to claim the wicket of another new batsman, which left North London at 70-9. With 5 runs left to win and just one wicket to take, Zubair came very close to taking it with 73 on the board. An LBW appeal was turned down in this penultimate over, causing outrage on the pitch. The next ball was squeezed for 2 runs, and North London got the 10pts.

Ashrafs and Zubairs key performance with the bat and ball respectively earned Kenton the chance to fight in this match. However, the reality is that Kenton have not won a game in the last 3, and have slipped second bottom of the table. Kenton face top of the league Wembley next week.