Knockers Vs Chislehurst & West Kent

Win :: Played on Sunday 1st September 2019

Knockers
226-9

Chislehurst & West Kent
170-10

Match Report

A lovely start to September with a bright day and some bushy eyed Knockers. Some appearances from our fan base in the form of Scott's parents and JT's family to cheer the team on. No surprises, the toss was won by Ollie to continue his bat first every game ethos.

Due to a side injury preventing him from bowling the captain sent himself in to open alongside Ed Springett who started very strongly and took advantage of some loose medium pace bowling coupled with a lightning outfield. Marsh held the other end playing a more contained innings against a consistent away swinging line and length bowler. The pair hit a couple of boundaries each to see the runs flow however the inexperienced Marsh fell to a good ball and brought in Kieran at 3 to face the metronome bowling, Ed had a pre-determined plan to come down the track first ball to the unlucky opener when he faced him and sent him back over his head for a glorious four and continued to lead the charge. Ratty got busy quickly and struck two fours before dragging a delivery off the strip used the previous day next to ours onto his stumps and could only laugh at his misfortune.

JT had some runs to get to catch Kuts to avoid back-to-back seasons resulting in defeat leaving him with a Kuts tasting pint to chew. He proceeded to build and hit a four, a single and then chipped a 22mph spinner to cover with comical precision. Springett fell after a sumptuous knock, just after dispatching the bowler to the ropes he tried the same on a full ball and was cleaned up. John Mitchell was 9 runs short of his season target and sadly only manged to add 5 to the total with a crunching back foot cut through backwards point. He looked on course to reach his mark but alas was undone trying to hit the target accomplishing boundary that he needed and was caught.

The ship needed steadying and which heroes should answer the call I hear you ask? Of course, seasoned Knockers in the form of Scott Landers and Paul Seldon, a 66 run partnership solidified the innings and left the remaining batsmen with time at the end to push hard. Some beautiful technique, showing the hard work over the past two years has really paid off, saw Scott confidently keep out their attack and allowed him to pounce on the loose ball, real discipline shown which was exactly what was called for at this stage. Paul played his usual free flowing shots whilst playing the good balls calmly. Both men found the fielders well but didn't panic and kept putting willow on leather. Finally the last 10 overs came and Scott decided to go big, hitting the bowler back over his head for four but was unlucky to fall trying the same again and the only loose shot of his innings was his undoing.

Paul was joined by Will Blease and both cantered on hitting boundaries aplenty. Paul fell to a well held catch just off the boundary at mid on and Akhil took over squeezing runs out of the innings. Blease hit some towering 6s, requiring many a bush hunt to retrieve the balls flying to all corners. He hit 24 in an over but holed out as the oppo held yet another tricky boundary catch, and Ziggy came in and hit 3 fours to continue to pile on the runs before Akhil fell and left Freddie facing the last ball, he looked once over his shoulder to his favoured behind square scoring zones and proceeded to excecute a perfect, Jos Butler-esque, scoop for 3 down towards the fine leg boundary to finish the innings.

An interesting tea of make your own sandwiches whilst the oppo had kebabs! A great spread and great company too.

Off we set in our defence of 226-9 from our 35 overs and Will opens the bowling alongside Freddie. The favoured opening partnership of pace and spin in the modern Knockers side seems to be working well over the past few years and despite these two not having bowled together they did a sterling job. Will's 40 yard run up disrupted the batsman as he sent down a back of length attack much to the delight of the on looking Marsh at deep mid off, whilst Freddie controlled his flight and length immaculately to frustrate the opening pair. Will ended his 5 over blitz wicket-less but with an impressive economy against some aggressive batting, whilst Freddie had one dolly dropped at cover but then picked up a key break-through wicket which was well held by Paul. This ended the opening stand but Chislehurst kept finding runs as three of their top four got mid to high 30s in a resilient chase attempt.

Freddie clean bowled one on 33 and Ziggy, who had decided to debut his seam attack (is there anything he can't do? (He DJs without smiling too FYI) picked up the other opener on 38 which brought momentum to the field. Enter JT, short on runs but a master of the loopy tempters, who snaffled an incredible reflex caught and bowled to dismiss Chislehurst's best bat and arguably their last chance at winning. This swung the game Knockers way completely and with JT picking up a 2nd wicket in the same over clean bowled the game was all but over as the tail only scored 34 for the final 6 wickets with Kieran reluctantly bowling but picking up a scalp with some tidy bowling and only allowing 20 runs off his 4 overs.

S.Landers bowled very well picking up 3 wickets including 2 caught by Freddie and Paul and a lightning stumping by Ed behind the sticks to put an end to a 22 run cameo by their number 7. Akhil wrapped up with a clean bowled and got what he deserved after bowling a tight opening spell for no wickets. A controlled game including some comical under arm fielding by the captain due to his injury but insistence on fielding on the boundary all game, Blease's and Selson's pinch hitting as well as JTs bowling display were particular highlights on the day.

Roll on this Sunday!

OM

 

Batting

Batsman	How Out	4s	6s	Runs
Ollie Marsh	bowled	2	0	8
Ed Springett	bowled	7	0	35
K Ratcliffe	bowled	2	0	8
James Thompson	caught	1	0	5
John Mitchell	caught	1	0	5
Paul Seldon	caught	9	3	67
Scott Landers	bowled	3	0	14
Will Blease	caught	4	1	36
Akhil Anand	stumped	0	0	6
David Bowen	not out	3	0	13
Freddie Young	not out	0	0	3

 

Bowling

Bowler	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts
Freddie Young	7.0	2	26	2
Will Blease	5.0	0	23	0
Akhil Anand	7.0	0	39	1
David Bowen	5.0	0	15	1
James Thompson	3.0	0	21	2
K Ratcliffe	4.0	0	20	1
Scott Landers	2.3	0	12	3

 

Match Photos