Aldershot 11Sep05

The Cricket Conference paired Kings with a youthful but strong Aldershot side at the neat Aldershot ground in Guildford Road. It showed the depth and strength of Kings squad this season that they were still able to put out a good side despite being without the services of Dave Miller, Steve Smith, Simon Pipe, Dave Wright, Gordon Young, Dave Miah and Paul Norman. Aldershot, having won the toss, elected to field first under grey and gloomy skies. An enthralling and close game was about to follow.

The first overs saw Kings openers of Dave Perry and Joel Miah having to come to grips with some pacey bowling from both Boughobza and Yorsten, both of whom were generating pace and bounce and a little movement from the pitch. Miah was the most fluent early on in using the pace of Yorsten to guide the ball backward of point down to 3rd man. Meanwhile Boughobza was being troubled by no ball problems but was still hurrying the ball onto the batsmen. Soon Perry was underway with a neat drive into the covers and Kings seemed to having ridden the opening spells. However when Yorsten served up a rare half volley Miah went to drive the ball and was bowled (24-1). Two overs later and the same fate befell Evans who was totally undone by Yorsten and the Kings number 3 departed without troubling the scorers (25-2).

Perry then played an exquisite drive off a Boughozba no ball to the long off boundary, which signalled the end of the bowlers spell to be replaced by the off-spin of Hameed. Melligan, the hero of the Nomads game, played watchfully against the pace of Yorsten but seemed uneasy with close fielders around him against Hameed. Yorsten was replaced by Morris which allowed Melligan to get underway whilst Perry struck two fine boundaries in succession off the off spinner. Melligan then tried to hit out against Hameed and picked up some runs with some mistimed pulls. However when he went aerial against the spinner he only managed to pick out Boughozba at long on (53-4). This brought Barnes in to join Perry, the new batsman got off the mark first ball with a couple of runs off Morris and then struck a superb on driven boundary the next ball. Kings were hopeful of a good partnership now to help build a decent total and this seemed extremely likely as Perry continued to look untroubled by either bowler while Barnes seemed to play both with all the time in the world.

However Morris then had Perry caught at short extra cover by Brown for a solid 25 (70-4). This brought Tighe, fresh from his superb innings the week before, in to join Barnes. He was quick to put his mark on the game with some crunching square drives off Choudhry which sped to the boundary but it was to be a brief quick fire innings this week and Choudhry gained revenge when he bowled Tighe in the same over. (87-5). Mackenzie was quick to show his intentions and clubbed Hameed to the mid wicket boundary on three occasions, once losing the match ball when it was implanted deep into a hedge. Barnes meanwhile stuck to his game plan and played the ball into the gaps for two's and three's. Mackenzie perished when he hit a Hameed full toss straight to long on where Boughozba took his second good catch (132-6).

Disaster followed soon after when Mears was run out trying to take a second run off a wide to long leg leaving Kings still some way short of a reasonable target. (136-6). Barnes was starting to up the tempo now, and added good runs with Young, before the latter holed out at cover (153-9). Barnes reached his maiden Kings fifty with another boundary, his sixth, to punish the returning Yorsten. With time running out Barnes went for all out attack off Hameed but was bowled to bring to an end a fine, well paced and chance less innings of 59 (171-9). The innings was over one ball later when Sones became Hameed's fifth victim (171).

The Aldershot response got off to a slow start as Tighe produced a testing opening over, whilst Sones could have made an early breakthrough when Baig drove hard to Mears at short mid-on but the fielder really only got a hand in the way of what was a very tough chance. Gass was then dropped off Sones by Bygrave at first slip, but it was a short lived reprieve for the batsman as he drove soon after to Mackenzie at mid-off who took a juggling catch at the third attempt. Menzies then survived a difficult chance off Tighe which Sones at slip just got finger tips to. Kings should have had another wicket when Baig drove a regulation return catch to Tighe but inexplicably the bowler could not hold on to the chance. But Tighe gained revenge soon after when he dug the ball in a bit shorter and as the ball got bigger on Baig he could not control his pull shot and was safely caught at mid wicket by Barnes.

There then followed a nervous stand between Menzies and Yorsten before Tighe again dug one in and the ball caught the edge of Menzies bat for Sones to take a sharp chance at slip. Boughozba and Yorsten then played some expansive shots, but Yosten was fortunate to survive when Evans dropped a relatively easy chance at mid wicket off Tighe. The introduction of Miah for Sones soon brought reward with Boughozba being bowled and then Morris being trapped LBW. Tighe claimed his third wicket when he had to run back and take a skier off his own bowling to dismiss Yorsten. Miah's perfect delivery to bowl Aldershot Ladies Captain Cathy Dockley left Kings in total command with the score at 76-7. However the game was about to be turned on its head. Choudry and Hameed then started to build a useful partnership with good running and some fine boundaries. They were helped along the way as Kings fielding and catching became sloppy. Further dropped catches by Bygrave, Mackenzie, Sones and Miah allowed the batsmen to lift the run rate high enough to leave them needing only five an over to win the game, this despite some good bowling by Barnes and Miah.

Kings turned to Mears to see if he could break the partnership, and, despite some wayward bowling, this was achieved. With Mears coming round the wicket he bowled a loose leg side delivery which Choudry helped round the corner but straight to Mackenzie at fine leg. If Kings thought the risk of losing the game had now gone they were wrong. Skipper Kerry came out and played aggressively with Hameed to keep them up with the required rate. Kings then brought back the effective Joel Miah and he struck immediately to take the vital wicket of Hameed for 44. In the gathering gloom Kings now needed one wicket to win whilst the Aldershot target was less than 15 runs away. It looked like Kings had secured the victory when Kerry lifted Bygrave to deep mid-wicket where the reliable Mears was patrolling but again the chance went begging. Kerry then struck Bygrave straight down the ground for another catching chance, but in the gloom Tighe did not even see the ball and it went whizzing past him to the boundary.

With two overs to go Bygrave looked to have secured the victory when he trapped Brown back in his crease in front off all three stumps but the umpire unbelievably turned down the appeal, with non striker Kerry saying it was missing leg, the batsman claiming he had hit it and the umpire strangely silent! So to the last over, with Aldershot needing five to win, and Kings one wicket to win, or needing to restrict the scoring to gain a draw or a tie. Kings skipper Rob Young set the field back to protect the boundaries but to also give Skipper Kerry the opportunity of a single, which Kerry duly took off Miah's first ball. Off the second ball Brown defensively chopped the ball to Sones in the gulley, Kerry called for the run but Brown was slow in reacting and Sones quickly gathered the ball and calmly rolled it to Miah who was at his stumps ready, he pick up and removed the bails to run Brown out by at least a yard. The celebrations began as Kings won a tense finish in near darkness by just 3 runs with 4 balls to spare.