SuttonTelecom24Apr05

Lady Luck was not on Kings side for their first game of the 2005 season, but in truth sometimes you have to make your own luck, and Kings did not deserve much good fortune from this game. Despite rain the previous day the pitch was dry and in good condition but with a nice green tinge Kings decided to bowl first.

In a forty over-a-side game a good start was needed from Kings bowlers and Nick Tighe started proceedings with a maiden over. But Richard Sones found bowling to the left handed Finch threw his line and the opener was quick to punish any thing off line. This became the trend as both batsmen were able to prosper from some short of a length and off line bowling from both bowlers. By the eight over the score had already reach 31 before luck swung in favour of the home team. A good ball from Tighe saw Blackford playing defensively but he could not stop the ball from spinning back onto his stumps only for the bails not to fall. Kings then started to reign in the racing scoring rate as the bowlers rid themselves of the cobwebs of the winter, supported by a more defensive field.

Tighe was replaced by Gordon Young after five of the openers allotted eight overs and the spinner soon found a perfect line that finally brought Kings a breakthrough in the 15th over when Blackford was pushed back and played round a straight delivery. (64-1) Kings then gained a second wicket when in his final over Sones bowled the new batsman without scoring. (65-2) However Bygrave's introduction, along with Finch making use of the short boundary, soon saw the scoreboard racing again and Finch and Hendie put together a useful partnership. Both bowlers continued to plug away but could do little against Finch's powerful pulls across the line, which saw Young put over the short boundary for several maximum hits, in the process taking Finch past fifty. When Young finished his spell Bygrave switched ends allowing Paul Norman to come into the attack. This brought immediate dividends when Finch went for one too many heaves and was bowled. (135-3).

There then followed a good partnership between Hendie and Loughran who pushed the score past the 150 mark before some excellent work by Steve Smith saw Loughran stumped off Bygrave. (170-4) Hendie then completed his fifty but fell immediately afterwards when Smith once again was the centre of the action as he completed his second stumping, this time off Norman. (196-5) The home side were now pushing for what ever runs they could in the dying overs, but they found Tighe and Norman difficult to score quickly off and in the process perished as Norman accounted for Ashen, caught by Miller (200-6) then next ball Parry caught by Bygrave (200-7) and Jacobs, (who survived an excellent hat trick ball) well caught by a diving Miller (201-8) to complete a five wicket haul for Norman. Kings were left chasing 204 for victory.

The 2:30pm start time then showed to be totally crazy, as the second innings started at 5:45, and with 40 overs ahead an expected finish time of 8:15, and with rain clouds gathering it was doubtful if the game would be concluded. However, Kings set off in chase of their target with a tactical change to their batting order, with Richard Mackenzie promoted to pinch hit with Dave Miller. Yet disaster struck in the first over when Mackenzie drove on the up to mid on, he should have perhaps been caught, but the ball fell behind the fielder, whilst he gathered the ball Miller called for a second run, but Mackenzie stayed rooted at his end for vital seconds, which meant his desperate dive as he tried to make his ground was in vain. (2-1). This brought Gordon Young to the crease and Kings then enjoyed a prosperous period as Miller laid into Loughran's bowling with some exquisite shots through the covers. Miller also laid into Skipper Jacobs bowling, taking six over cover point and next ball driving for four.

Kings were well up with the run rate and Young was happy to play support role as Miller continued to punish Loughran to the longest boundary in the ground. However with 45 on the board and with Miller on 35, Loughran got all the luck going when a short pitched ball failed to even get inches off the ground to shatter the stumps and dismiss Miller, who in truth looked totally in command. Kings then suffered a huge blow to their hopes of winning the game, as firstly Evans drove his 3rd ball on the up straight into the hands of the cover fielder, and then Jacobs served up a totally unplayable inswinging yorker to bowl Young. Kings had slumped from 45-1 to 45-4. Only two further runs were added before Norman got a similar delivery to that of Young (47-5) and when Tighe was superbly caught by Finch at slip Kings were in deep trouble at 47-6.

Wright and Bygrave then added nine runs before Wright's attempted pull saw him edge behind (56-7). With the clouds ever darker now and the first few drops of rain starting to fall Bygrave and Smith tried to play out for the rain, using up eight overs in taking the score to 74, before Smith was caught at slip. With no real rain falling and with a further 18 overs remaining Bygrave and Skipper Young then took a different approach and went on the attack. Their assault on the bowling saw the score past the three figure mark as Bygrave drove strongly down the ground whilst Young was quick to punish anything wide as they added 31 for the 9th wicket before Bygrave was caught for 24 by Finch at slip.

There was still time for one further assault of the bowling as Young added a further 19 with Sones before the latter was caught behind off his second ball. Kings had been dismissed for a below par 124, with Rob Young bludgeoning an unbeaten 39 off just 25 balls. Five minutes after the game finished the rain started to fall more heavily and play would undoubtedly been stopped - but Kings did not deserved to be saved, it was very much a ring rusty performance and one they will hope they can put behind them very soon.