Knockers Vs Belvedere

Win :: Played on Sunday 12th May 2024

Belvedere
118-6

Knockers
122-6

Match Report

The 2024 Knockers season kicked off with a strong performance under the May sunshine, a last-minute fixture change was not going to deter the cricket-hungry KCC gentlemen who were chomping at the bit. Belvedere was the new venue after Hadlow sadly couldn’t put together a team, the London based cohort were very content as HRM left us the gift of the Lizzy Line, God rest her soul.

With captain and new father O.Marsh there with plenty of time, now he is on best behaviour, he took one look at the deck (did he though?) and decided it was a bat first day. A 35 overs game was agreed and the opposition captain, lacking a coin to flip, threw Marsh’s phone into the air, ’glass side up’, was exclaimed. The case exploded into pieces and the toss was lost. Knockers took to the field.

Somehow, at Belvedere CC, both ends sloped up to the crease, it was hot work for many KCC players, enduring their first exposure to actual sunlight for months. Thankfully Neil Dave found his rhythm, down the slope, from ball one and in a stellar spell of seven straight sets of saucy seeds he came away with figures of 0-22 with just two over pitched deliveries going to the ropes. Metronomic and deserved more reward but played a huge part in the early pressure built, culminating in team wickets down the line.

Luke Stevens had the treacle end first and made a powerful start to his charge, creating a straight forward caught behind chance. His leg stump line to the left-hand opener proved a masterstroke with the legside boundary well covered and uphill, strangling BCC for runs. Stevo’s energy dwindling, the skipper mercifully pulled him off the front lines and instead sent him into the wall at cover, not much respite for our all-rounder.

Step up Akhil Anand, replacing his fellow Edinburgh comrade, he begun his tenure as if he’d been bowling all morning, such was the consistency of his line and length. His miserly bowling was the envy of his skipper but very much revered, as alongside Dave, Stevens, Dale, Marsh and (checks notes twice to be sure) JT(!) the opposition were left scratching their heads with 46 on the board after 19 overs.

Joe Dale came onto a seam friendly pitch and played the game of chicken with the batsmen, spin bowling at its best. His first two overs found a probing length and got the breakthrough KCC deserved, capitalising on Neil’s hard toiling from that end. His 3rd and ultimately final over saw 6 ripped balls whistling through the air but unfortunately 5 never got the chance to grip as the BCC skipper used some keen footwork and hit them to the ropes, with his final blow of the over spelling the end of the Dukes ball that O.Marsh had been eyeing up for some seam movement in an attempt to get anything out of the wicket. (Editor’s note: Ollie somehow skips his own seven overs for nine runs culminating in a double wicket maiden to complete his spell.)

It would be remiss of me to not mention the guile and skill of JT, the buffet bowler, apologies buffer bowler, allowing a tactical change of ends for the skipper, bringing A.Omar into the fray down the hill. JT sent the ball up, up, up and into some areas that would ask questions of all the modern greats who are too used to express bowling on flat IPL tracks. JT has reclaimed the dibbly dobbler role and proved it to have career ending effects on even the most settled batsmen, finally bringing an end to D.Ram and his 19 from 100 balls with a LBW that was as plumb as you could get. The only question on everyone’s lips as their jaws hit the floor was ’would it have knocked the bails off?’, ’should he have left it and rolled the dice?’.

More Adil Omar bowling is required as the KCC debutant showed his commitment to spin the ball as much as possible, what we all love to see and a chance was created as his skipper shied away at short midwicket from a well struck full toss, should’ve been snaffled. A few overpitched deliveries saw the ball race away, but plenty there to keep him coming back, welcome to Knockers.

Our head chef came on at a tricky time after BCC’s captain and 2nd best bat were making light work of spin and had over doubled their teams total in the last 10 overs. Rups, overheard earlier talking about ’marinaded chicken ready to go’, never a day off, was by far and away ready to go himself, a mid innings stud change saw him come into the attack later than usual. Was his death bowling up to the challenge? Bang Bang Rups went off! Clean bowling both ’in’ batsmen in his first over and finishing with figures of 2-12 from his three closing overs with the oppo looking to swing.

An all round team effort and special mention to Matt Landers for setting the tone in the field, making backwards point his own and charging in at everything that came his way. BCC finished on 118-6 from their 35 overs.

Tea was BYO and a bench was surrounded to enjoy a good catch up before Marsh decided we only needed four batsmen to tidy this game up.

Jai took the first ball with Jay supporting from the non-strikers, he flicked the first two balls through backwards square leg for four and Marsh settled into his scoring with a gleeful air of confidence. Jay found the heart of his bat with everything he touched and KCC were 28-0 from the first three overs. Oh to be a Knocker! Full toss, top edged and curtains for Jay who is playing his final season for us until he returns!

Jai put up a dolly but was dropped and Matt Landers left a ball which cannoned, at 45mph, into middle and leg after he had just middled six picture perfect forward defensives. JT and Jai were still there and looking strong, some classy drives from Jai and a well hit pull from JT kept us well above the rate and again KCC were cruising.

M.Begg comes on to bowl with white sweatbands on both wrists and a headband to match, he hits JT’s pads and without much noise from his teammates goes into full umpire assault mode as limbs were gesturing and rules were being cited, as his namesake suggests. Matt stood strong and stuck with his gut, not out. The next ball JT decided the game was won and it’d be more entertaining to see if Matt entered an MMA bout rather than carry his bat through, JT was correct. He selfishly missed a straight one and Begg goes mad, celebrating in Matt’s face, bringing on one of the greatest displays of restraint I have seen for a long time. Three more tough decisions come Matt’s way and it looks like he won’t be sticking his hand up to umpire anytime soon. Lesson to learn there; don’t leave a straight one and get the runs in.

Adil came to the crease and already looks to be cementing himself as an all-rounder, with a sumptuous bouncing knee dip and high bat lift, he looked liquid from the scoring bench. He sent his first KCC ball to the ropes and pressed on from there, looking for runs and hitting it in all the right areas, only for Jai to turn leisurely threes into singles. Strangely when the ball flew off his own bat quick singles and twos were suddenly back on the menu.

KCC had 116-3 on the board with 12 overs remaining, Stevo was padded up to hit a big six if required, no one else even considered donning their whites let alone some pads. Adil went to finish it in style, LBW. Stevo, immaculate forward defensive first up then clean bowled by a half tracker whilst trying to emulate the Knockers logo and play it off his beak.

Rups, picture perfect defence first up then caught swinging his extra large pot at the heavens. Akhil, Neil and Marsh showed zero interest in moving and between them had one white item on, this left the scores level after a bye and a scramble.

Enter stage left the myth that is Joe Denly heading out to the middle, after being told by the skipper that if he gets out he’ll declare, he managed to hold up the non-striker’s end whilst Jai used his third leg to fend off five dot balls before dispatching the final ball of the over to the ropes, match won and season off to a flyer. Celebrations went on for over an hour as Jai had some physio treatment from Adil, with some tears being shed and JT, after returning from a quick 10k, quipped that it was a bad day to be a Smirnoff Ice.

What will next week have in store?

 

Batting

Batsman	How Out	4s	6s	Runs
Jai Shah	not out	10	0	63
Jayatheerth Seetharaman	caught	2	0	11
Matt Landers	bowled	1	0	5
James Thompson	bowled	1	0	13
Adil Omar	lbw	2	0	13
Luke Stevens	bowled	0	0	0
Rupesh Vara	caught	0	0	0
Joe Dale	not out	0	0	0
Ollie Marsh	dnb	0	0	0
Akhil Anand	dnb	0	0	0
Neil Dave	dnb	0	0	0

 

Bowling

Bowler	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts
Luke Stevens	5.0	0	18	0
Neil Dave	7.0	0	22	0
Akhil Anand	7.0	4	6	0
Ollie Marsh	7.0	3	9	2
James Thompson	1.0	0	1	1
Joe Dale	3.0	0	24	1
Adil Omar	2.0	0	20	0
Rupesh Vara	3.0	0	13	2

 

Match Photos