Bromley Common CC – 3rd XI vs Bickley Park CC – 3rd XI

Report

Saturday morning weather left the fixture, like many others across the county, delicately balanced. Thankfully, the rain relented and at just after 1:30 Sunny won toss and elected to field in a match reduced 36 overs per innings. Chris Jacob and Sunny started well, with the ball moving around in the air and off the seam, but all too frequently it moved too much, requiring the umpire to stretch his arms!!!
The Bromley Common openers looked to have settled in when a Jacob full toss driven back at the bowler, who tipped the ball onto the stumps as it flashed past, leaving he non striker stranded. The number 3 batsman looked assured from the start and several cover drives and on drives later saw him eclipse his more stoic partner. Vish replaced CJ but struggled in the face of gusty winds to find any rhythm, while Hewitt twirled his 7 over spell with the wind at his shoulders. Jack Horner replaced Vish and found a good line and length from the off. Debutant keeper Manav Khatri took a sharp catch off a inside edge to remove the remaining opener before Jack cleaned up the impressive Kothari for 58 and struck again to reduce Common to 116-4. Last week’s hero, Yawar finished from the top end and Sunny returned to replace Jack, but unfortunately were unable to continue to apply pressure on the batsmen and the last few overs allowed the home side to post a slightly above par total of 171.

In reply, vice-captain Simon Davis and Vish opened the innings, but neither managed to reach double figures as the home bowling attack rarely strayed and applied pressure. Vish looked unhappy at his LBW decision while Simon lasted to the tenth over before a mistimed drive saw his demise. Mark Hardy and Leo Hadcock looked more fluent, with Leo in particular punishing the odd loose delivery but three wickets in four overs took any real chance of winning away from us. The two left handers, Julian and Manav combined for a ten over period of consolidation and then acceleration with singles and then a plethora of 4s and 6s from Ramsey took us over the hundred mark, but when first Manav and shortly afterwards the skipper and finally Jules (top score 38) departed the game was up. It was left to the old heads of Hewitt and Horner to ensure that we did not gift the home side any more points and closed on a mere total of 117 – 8.

Bromley Common certainly deserved the win, as they out batted and out bowled us. Good performances from Horner and Ramsey, showing experience and temperament but disappointing elsewhere, and lessons of patience to be learned. The highlight of the day, however, was an almost faultless display behind the stumps (and with a stoic knock) from the young man on debut. Well done, Manav!