Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs’ recent faltering form has extended into the second half of the season with a agonizing home defeat against Dartford. Having lost the toss and fielding first, they reduced Dartford to 84-6 in the 25th over with George Kidd (4-32) doing most of the damage. At this stage, they looked likely to cruise to an easy win and an early finish. The Dartford tail, however, had other ideas and added a further 96 runs for the next two wickets. The visitors finished on 192-8 and despite this still being a reachable target, they had seized the initiative from a somewhat deflated home team already light on batting due to a number of absences.
George Kidd 10-1-32-4
Nathan Fox 5-0-23-2
Freddie Corner 10-1-36-1
Chris Flint 5-0-29-1
Chris Kidd 10-2-25-0
Oliver Frewin 6-0-29-0
Jay Basu 4-0-18-0
The reply couldn’t have got off to a worse start with Jay Basu being dismissed without scoring off the third delivery he faced and Alex Hogben (1) following suit shortly after. When Venugoplan (5) was bowled at the start of the 11th over and the score on 25-3, it looked like there would indeed be an early finish for all the wrong reasons from the hosts’ perspective. Then an outstanding 4th wicket stand of 117 between Nathan Fox and George Kidd brought the home side back into contention. Fox was eventually trapped LBW in the 41st over after a near-faultless knock and just 4 runs short of a century. The responsibility now shifted to Kidd, who had until now played the anchor role, to lead the charge. When Adam Jacob was dismissed next ball, Tom Marshall joined Kidd in the middle with the reply on 142-5 and just under 10 overs remaining to score 51 more runs to win. However, there were more twists in store; Kidd departed for 41 at the start of the 46th over followed two balls later by Marshall. With 26 still needed and 3 wickets remaining, a fresh partnership needed to be established but unfortunately, none of the tail-end were able to stay around long enough to see the match over the line and when the last wicket fell, Broadstairs were 8 runs short of victory. Yet another close finish and a bitterly disappointing end to a match that had ebbed and flowed and where Broadstairs were in the driving seat for much of the afternoon.
They will need to lick their wounds and re-group with a full-strength side when they travel to Beckenham, hoping to get back in the habit of winning matches.
