Bickley Park CC – 3rd XI vs Belvedere CC, Kent – 2nd XI

Report

After an excellent start to the season BPCC thirds were looking to continue their winning ways. Skipper Sunny and Vice-Captain Simon were unavailable, so Richard Horner stepped up to lead the team. After losing the toss, BPCC were put into bat on an unreliable wicket we are all too well familiar with at the Warren.
BPCC got off to a steady start until Jack was dismissed lbw. Marco was unable to follow on from his destructive knock last week as he was caught behind. Samit came to the crease and as always looked comfortable with some classy shots. Samit and Abu shared a solid partnership as Abu batted brilliantly with aggressive shots sent to the boundary and the odd attempted reverse sweep. After the partnership was broken, a mini collapse left BPCC just short of a par score, but impressive late hitting from Richard, backed up by Suresh, Chris H and Barry brought us to a respectable total of 159 all out after 39.3 overs.
After tea, Belvedere emerged with Chris Eaton and Sahil opened the bowling. Wickets fell regularly including a brilliant diving catch from Barry at first slip. Sahil claimed 5 wickets during his spell after a fantastic bowling performance which was backed up by Chris E, also claiming a wicket. Abu followed on from his impressive batting by claiming two quick wickets. Marco replaced Chris E and bowled with some serious pace, taking a wicket in his first ball smashing middle stump out of the ground. Great performances from the four bowlers used resulted in Belvedere being bowled out for 87 in only 23 overs before the expertise of Chris H and Richard was required.
Another strong BPCC team performance led to a comfortable victory leaving the third team top of the table, winning 3 from 3. Stand out performances include the partnership from Samit (35) and Abu (59), a 5-for by Sahil and quality keeping from Jack, who claimed four catches.