Sulhamstead 31Jul05

Following heavy showers the day before this match was fortunate to go ahead, yet come Sunday the ground had dried surprisingly well. However a wrong decision by the home team saw the match played on the pitch from the rain effected game the day before. The dented and scared pitch had dried into a batting track with craters and undulations on a length at both ends. So it was somewhat surprising that the home side decided to bat first, which played right into Kings’ game plan.

Kings experienced opening bowlers of Nick Tighe and Richard Sones (a combined age of 84!) started proceedings. Tighe was quick to test the batsman’s reactions with some fine bowling whilst Sones’ slower pace certainly had the batsmen playing very watchfully. Tighe should have made the first breakthrough when Belcher top edged on to his helmet and Gordon Young lunging forward from short leg just failed to get a hand to the ball. Tighe was the unlucky bowler again when Doole edged and Miller at first slip did well to get a hand to a ball just inches off the ground. Meanwhile Sones was still causing problems as both batsmen found him nearly unplayable. The luck continued to go against Tighe as balls continued to pop up between fielders. The breakthrough finally came when Doole could only turn Sones into the hands of the well positioned Barnes at leg gully (21-1). Two balls later Sones struck again when Braithwaite drove on the up but only into the safe hands of Perry at mid off (21-2).

Tighe again was the unfortunate bowler when Braithwaite drove loosely but the ball evaded Barnes at mid on. M Abbott looked uneasy against Sones and Kings were hopeful of a third wicket. Sones finished his spell with unbelievable figures of 8-6-2-2! He was replaced by Bygrave whilst Tighe was replaced by Joel Miah. Bygrave bowled a superb first over maintaining the pressure built by Sones. However it was Miah who got the next breakthrough when Braithwaite shouldered arms only for Miah to cut the ball back to lay back the off stump (31-3). As the pressure continued to mount the Sulhamstead batsmen struggled to break the shackles. Only four more runs were added before the perfect delivery from Bygrave comprehensively beat Abbott all ends up (35-4). Kings continued to dominate with both Bygrave and Miah threatening in different ways. Miah struck again when he beat Leroy Abbott for pace and he was bowled behind his legs (48-5). With the time toward the tea interval rapidly running out Booth and Lattimore were left with little option to push on.

This they successfully did against the slower pace of Gordon Young and the skidder action of Chris Barnes. Booth despatched Young into the trees at the deep square leg boundary and then Barnes to both the cover and mid wicket boundaries. However Kings refused to wilt and with some good death bowling and excellent fielding Kings still managed to restrict the home team to 117-5 at tea, having taken 45 overs to score the runs.

The opening overs of Kings innings were a test for Dave Miller and Dave Perry as Gill and Mark Gibson made good use of the pitch to put the pressure on. The opening ten overs saw just 9 runs scored but Kings were riding the storm well and Gill was removed from the attack when Perry smacked him twice to the cover boundary. Perry then drove Gibson superbly back over his head as the innings started to gain some momentum. Gill was replaced by Eddie Gibson, and it was his slow bowling that was to provide the breakthrough. But first Perry was quick onto anything short and soon added more vital runs to the score. However when Gibson dropped short Perry went to pull and the ball leaped off the pitch, caught the bat high up and the ball ballooned to Mark Gibson at backward square (28-1).

This brought Joel Miah in to join Miller. Miah quickly punished Mark Gibson with two well timed shots off his legs, and Miller drove the same bowler back over his head forcing him out of the attack. As rain clouds started to gather on the horizon the two batsmen took 17 off Steimens’ two overs in an acceleration which pushed the innings on well. As the first rain drops started to fall and the clouds grew darker still both batsmen stepped up a gear. Miller, with trade mark drives and pulls and Miah with a variety of shots started to pepper the boundary. With his tenth boundary Miller brought up his fifty as the victory line came into sight. Miah played a superb hook shot off a Brathwaite no ball to take the scores level and then Miah immaculately off drove the same bowler to the boundary to win the game by 9 wickets and with 10 overs to spare. All three batsmen had batted well on a difficult pitch, Miller carrying his bat for 55 whilst Miah followed his unbeaten 50 against Kempton with an unbeaten 37. Kings had secured their 9th win of the season by knocking the runs off in just 30 overs. It was a well earned victory for Kings, whose varied attack bowled superbly and then batted well in difficult conditions.