Week 8 – Kenton CC 1st XI vs North London CC 1st XI

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.