The 1s kicked their season off by hosting Harrow Town at home. With Dylan Assani now leading the side, the boys were confident to start the season off with a win. After a winter of hard work, and a mixed pre-season, the mood in the camp was still positive. We also welcomed Utkarsh (UT) to the club as an overseas. Hem and Owen, who have not stopped training since the end of last season, are certainly players to look out for over the course of the season. Skipper Dylan lost the toss and we were put into bat. Schops and Abbas got us off to a flyer and we were 70-0 after the powerplay. After Schops, and then Kalps were dismissed, Abs dug in and anchored the innings brilliantly before falling for 68. Owen, UT and Chich who brought up his half century helped us get towards 260. The defence could not have started any better, with Charlie removing their opener with a sensational direct hit. Dylan leading from the front took 3 wickets in his spell including the big wicket of Sanjay Mishra.Charlie as reliable as ever taking 2-8 in his 7 overs. At 82/7 we were well in control. Kalps then removed their overseas, before Hem (taking his first 1st XI league wicket) and Asif finished the job. 140 all out and 10 points to start the season, here's hoping it continues in next week's fixture away to Highgate.
Scorecard: https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/6753319

Kenton CC 2nd XI vs Highgate CC 2nd XI (A)

After winning 3/3 games in pre-season, the morale in the 2s camp was high. Roshan Patel continued as captain and their were some new faces in the team, including Tejpalsinh Jadeja who we recruited as an overseas. Alongside him, Milind Kamdar, Puneet Pattni and Nihal Halai, adding much needed depth to our squad. Having lost the toss, we were fielding. We restricted Highgate to 227/6 in 45 overs. Yashil Kamdar, the spearhead of the 2s bowling attack taking 2-41, while Tejpalsinh Jadeja supported with an economical 1-19. Coming to the chase and at 39/0 we started well but a flurry of wickets thereafter meant we were 64/4. Puneet dug deep with 33 while skipper Roshan added 30 and Prithvi Nakrani added 21. Regular wickets preventing us from building a match-winning partnership and we ended 208/9 from 45 overs, falling 19 runs short. Despite this, the boys showed fight to bring the game close and will be looking to rectify this next week vs West Harrow at home.
Scorecard: https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/6753992

Kenton CC 3rd XI vs Hampstead CC 4th XI (A)

The 3s turned up to Hampstead Heath, full of confidence after a strong 2024 season. Jonny Rye took the reigns as captain and was confident he and the boys can mount a serious push for promotion, although when asked, his main goal for the season was to win the fantasy league again. Anyways onto the game and we loss toss and we were batting. Perhaps a good toss to lose as the pitch did not look like getting any better as the game went on. Our start could not have gone worse as we were reduced to 14/4 early on. Chirag Purohit with a vital 22 and Danushka Lazarus seemed to be batting on a different surface to everyone else, scoring 70. Jameel powered his way to 49 taking us to 203 all out. Hampstead's innings never got going and Jonny's plan of bowling to the stumps paid dividends in the form of 7 bowled and 2 LBWs. Shoutouts to Prishant Roy bowling 11 overs first up on the trot and Pranav Shah taking 4-11 off just 5 overs. 87 all out and 10 points in the bag. Roll on Brondesbury at home next week.
Scorecard: https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/6754445

Kenton CC 4th XI vs Wycombe House CC 3rd XI (H)

The 4th XI took on Wycombe House 3rd XI at the Alan Digby Ground in Division 3 after back to back promotions under Hiren Patel's captaincy. Club legend Deepak (Dippy) Singh took over the 4th XI and was ready to mount a 3rd successive promotion push. The mood in the camp has been quite positive and the boys have been focused on continuing to put up solid performances whilst creating a platform for our youngsters to break into adults cricket. One of these is Zakirullah Khiyal, someone to definitely keep your eye on over the course of the season. Just before the game started,After Rishabh was on the receiving end of a ferocious Devesh cover drive during the warm-up (wishing him a speedy recovery!) we had to call in Sakith as a late replacement. After losing the toss (seemed to be a common theme this weekend), new additions Raj Parmar and Bernard Emmanuel restricted House to 41/3 early on however they were on 142/3 at drinks, having taken advantage of the small boundaries. After drinks, the tide turned in our favour, Ankit Shah (4-45) and Zakirullah Khiyal (3-9) ripped through the middle and lower order and House collapsed to 158 all out. A fantastic fightback from the boys. Onto the chase and at 48/1 we looked comfortable. Roshan Desai started well, as too did Devesh. We were then reduced to 87/5 but Krunal Patel and Raj Parmar, the coolest men in the ground took us home. Krunal with an unbeaten 57, while Raj took the pressure off him by hitting some important boundaries to end with 29 before he was dismissed. A huge 10 points to start the campaign, onto next week as we make the journey to Bessborough to take on their 3s.
Scorecard: https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/6754624

32 points to start our weekend off, here's hoping for 40 next week!!