Match Report: 4s vs North Middlesex CC 5s (18/06/2022)

Toss: Kenton won the toss and decided to field first.

Kenton 1st place v's second place team North Middx at The Alan Digby Ground. We knew this would be a tough game with the other form side in the league and this was clear early on. The young batsmen at one end looked solid and played some lovely shots whilst the other end the senior Smith supported well. We plugged away without much luck especially Mo Ali who bowled a very economical spell. Vijay got the first wicket with the score over 50. No 3 Fraser the captain was struggling at first but supported the young Musikant (88) at the other end and although North mIddlesex weren't scoring fast we had to wait for the score to reach 100 before we made the second breakthrough. A smart pick up and direct hit from Harshdip was good to see after our fielding hadn't been as sharp as in the last few weeks. We missed several catches and the scoreboard could have looked very different. The youngsters struggled to keep the batsmen from scoring 6 an over before Mihir was welcomed into the attack. He with an almighty hangover bowled good lines and was turning the ball sharply and he deserved his figures of 6-46. No batsmen below 4 scored more than 11 but it was the key 1st and 2nd wicket partnership that helped North Middlesex to 219 all out in 49.1 overs.

In reply Harshdeep (15) and Snehal (26) started the innings well. The left arm over Carlton was bowling good lines whilst Chambers had a good first over before Snehal took him apart in his 3rd and 4th over. The opening partnership took us to 52 in 8 overs before Carlton removed both openers. A change in bowling with the off spin of Lorenzo in the 10th over was a surprise. The pitch assisted and he was able to generate sharp turn removing KP (3) and Wahid (14) to leave the home team at 76-4. A tricky position after a decent start. It was up to Vijay and Zabi to rebuild the innings. Both batted sensibly and took the score to 108 before Zabi was bowled for 19. Vijay was running out of partners as Mo, Quadratullah and Hashmat were all bowled. 108-5 became 166-9 when the captain Hiren top edged a pull shot. A rain delay had occurred for 30 mins during the collapse and Kenton were confident of securing the winning draw however the fall of wickets did not help. The winning draw target was 184. Mihir joined Vijay at the crease and as they looked to achieve that target off 42 overs. Overs 36-39 saw only 3 runs. scored and Kenton were 169 off 39 overs. It was touch and go before Vijay scored 3 boundaries in the 40th Over to take Kenton to 182, just 2 away from the winning draw score with 2.1 overs remaining. In the excitement we also missed to clap Vijay's 50! It was the last ball of the 40th over when Vijay (51 not out) hit the ball to backward point and called Mihir through for a run that was not there. North Middx got the run out and we lost by 37 runs.

A frustrating result after 5 wins on the spin. Catches not taken, batting could and has been much better and we could have got the win or at worst the winning draw. A result the team must bounce back from.