Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs suffered their second defeat in successive matches, this week to promotion rivals Bickley Park.
Stand in skipper James Bond won the toss and chose to bat first. The wicket usually becomes dry and dusty in the second innings thus suiting our array of spinners.
We were in trouble early on, 24-4 after 10 overs, Archie (2) was first to fall caught behind, Nathan (4) was then bowled, George (4) was caught and Tom (0) was caught at slip. James and Harry tried to consolidate for a while, Aimey bowled a fantastic spell and looked like taking a wicket every delivery. Harry (16) fell with the score on 42, caught and bowled and Oli (26) joined James (37).
The two older heads were able to weather the storm, Aimey finished his spell 3-14 from his 10 overs but they now faced the off spinner who was generating tremendous spin and some bounce. A stand of 55 in 22 overs shows just how difficult the scoring was. James’ battling innings came to an end when he was clean bowled. Farjad (11) looked to score freely until he too was bowled with the score on 123. Brad (3*) joined Oli, the first target being 150 to set some sort of total, Oli then got a leading edge and the swashbuckling Callum (14) came to the wicket. His first two scoring shots were a thunderous lofted drive back over the bowlers head to the boundary and a nice pick up over to cow corner but after another nicely struck boundary he was suckered with a slower delivery and was early on the shot. Ashley (2) joined Bradley and the brothers set out to hit 150, but were unable to do so, Ash feeding one back to the bowler who took a good catch and Broadstairs were 145 all out with 5 overs remaining.
The Bickley reply got off to a good start, Brad then made the breakthrough in the 9th over with a rare LBW. Oli was into the attack early and struck in his third over, Natty taking the catch at cover. In his next over he removed the dangerous Bickley captain, tempting him into a sweep and a top edge taken by Brad. All of a sudden Bickley were 49-3 and Broadstairs had some belief. However, Bickley were able to consolidate and knew they had plenty of time. We maybe missed a couple of chances in the field and need to be more focused, it’s the most vital part of the game!
Harry replaced Brad and struck with what’s becoming his trademark delivery. A quick, full, off stump yorker was too good for the batsman, he also produced a fantastic slower ball that looked like it came out the back of the hand and completely bamboozled the stubborn Patel and he had his second. But with the score on 106 was there enough time?
George also bowled well, enjoying the spin friendly track he was able to beat the bat on numerous occasions and picked up his wicket courtesy of a Tom Marshall stumping. 119-6 and could have been more, a couple of missed chances that on another day may have been taken but it wasn’t to be today.
Ultimately the demolition job that Bickley did on our top order changed the game and our lack of not batting the 50 overs. We bowled really well and were better in the field but we still need to work on it.
This weeks MoM is Oli Frewin, batting with James he helped get us back into the game along with his good spell of bowling which included removing their best bat as well as picking up his 150th second XI wicket.
With St Lawrence also losing we’ve missed a chance to get to the top of the league. We play St Lawrence next week in a must win game if we want to get promoted.
