A proud day for the new captain

Kidlington were going into this game with a new captain, the 17 year old, Jonah Clarke. As the players rocked up he did the toss and called tails. It was heads. He was hoping to bat first on a scorching hot day and a very fine wicket for batting. Unfortunately, the Swinbrook captain was thinking the same and opted to bat first. So the Kiddy warriors headed out onto the field. Openers Aman and Ummer were solid to start and the fielding from the whole team was some of the best we’ve produced this season. There was a real sense of togetherness and the field was loud and active. Keen to preserve the bowlers on a hot day, Clarke made early changes, bringing on Baiju Saleem and Ajay Behal. Ajay has boldly suggested, before the game, that the wicket would generate some real turn for the spinners and that we should definitely bowl first, bold claims, from a spin bowler, so there was a lot of pressure on him. He certainly rose to that pressure. The first wicket came after a great delivery, catching the ball himself for a superb caught and bowled. The second wicket fell thanks to Ajay’s worst ball of the day, a full toss which the batsman somehow missed, and was given LBW, but we were all proud of Behal who was bowling impressively. It was an easy decision for Clarke to keep him bowling as long as possible, it’s just a shame that he can only bowl 7 in a row because, despite his fine facial hair, he is still an under 18. Slowly but surely the young number 3 for Swinbrook, Eisner was racking up the runs and the skipper looked for a new bowler to mix things up. Luckily he knew of a certain 13 year old, who possesses lethal seam bowling, fast, low and with a perfectly off-putting action, the stage was set for Josh Behal. He dismissed the veteran, Wingfield Digby for a duck and things were looking good for the Behal boys and the team as a whole. Unfortunately, this meant the entrance of C. Dadge, the little batsman, who had displayed his batting prowess at the brake earlier in the season, a big hitter who hit big again today. He established a whopping partnership with the 15 year old Eisner of 162 runs and the Kidlington fielders were looking shell-shocked. Eisner got his 50 and then his 100 in impressive fashion, but it was clear that once he had secured his ton, he had decided he would bring out the ridiculous shots. After scooping and reverse sweeping for four, Ajay had had enough of his outrageous antics and bowled him aggressively. Fair play, a phenomenal 110 from a 15 year old, but that’s what you get for trying to reverse sweep the mighty Ajay Behal, who stands for no nonsense and sent him walking. C. Dadge left the field with the scoreboard on 232. Once that partnership had been wiped out, the wickets came thick and fast for Kiddy, with Josh Behal bowling great ball after great bowl to the helpless Swinbrook tail-end, with wickets falling on 233, 234 and 236. Josh was now matching his brother for wickets with the Behal boys on 4 each. Fighting furiously for his fifer, he forced the Swinny batsman into a flailing shot up into the air which Ummer unfortunately couldn’t quite get a full hand to and dropped. Come the next over, Joshy Behal forced the batsman into a similar flailing shot which Ummer proceeded to catch impressively. It seems he was on team Josh today as, in doing so, he handed Josh his fifer having previously denied Ajay his. Kidlington finished the bowling having taken 9 wickets, impressively, but we had conceded a huge 262 going into tea.

The young Kidlington captain had tricky decisions to make during tea, namely, should I go for egg or tuna sandwiches? And is it acceptable to have two slices of Victoria sponge? A fine tea was much appreciated by all the Kiddy boys, who were grateful for a large and delicious selection of foods both sweet and savoury. Once he had finished his tea, Clarke sent Razwan Dogar and Harry Brock into bat, the latter had impressed last week hitting 25 as an opener and Raz is a talented batsman. Unfortunately, one of the umpires had not turned up so one of us had to do the honours at square leg, and one of the only adults who didn’t need to pad up, Ran, valiantly put in a massive shift for 15 overs at square leg and I would like to say a big thank you to him.

The innings started off terrifically, with Raz hitting two fours straight off the bat, (pardon the pun) and this was helped nicely by a four bye right after. Harry Brock was impressive with his perfect cricketing shots, displaying great technique to block out the openers, unfortunately, he lost his wicket to a great ball from the youngster, Wingfield Digby, who opened the bowling. Ummer replaced him and established a partnership with Raz, they were hitting impressively and the run rate was far beyond that required to win. Unfortunately, R. Dadge was impressive with the ball, and bowled 3 consecutive wicket maidens, dismissing Ummer, Raz and Josh Behal in impressive fashion. I wasn’t happy with Dadge for dismissing young Behal, because it meant that I had to endure his awful banter as he and Ajay went at each other while I tried to score. Gary Woods took to the crease next, and we now had an experienced veteran with the bat in the middle. Impressively, he got off the mark by running an impressive two, and from there he started to hit fours for fun. Taking the team into tea Gary and Josh Swadling looked good. Unfortunately, the young Swadling was dismissed for just 5 by the demon bowler, R. Dadge. Enter Ajay Behal, no doubt desperate to trump his younger brother with the bat, and after a long hard knock, he did that, by scoring a run. He looked good in the middle but swung lazily at a wide ball and was duly caught. Baiju was next up as the batsmen went into the tail end and the captain went inside to pad up. Gary lost his wicket shortly after and it was time for the captain to step up. He and Baiju started to get going well, with R. Dadge only having 1 over left of his spell, Baiju advised Clarke just to block out for a few balls, but Jonah instead opted to hit him for four first before then blocking him out. As his overs dried up before his very eyes, he was left powerless as Jonah toyed with him and saw him out. A hugely admirable spell as he finished with figures of 5-37, with the Dadge brothers arguably outshining the Behal brothers with fine batting and bowling from them both. Baiju and Jonah were getting into it nicely and nothing that Swinbrook threw their way could shake them. Baiju ran like a young gazelle and the pair put on a beautiful partnership of over 50. We made it to the second drinks break and were feeling good. Tragically, I lost my batting partner to an A. Wingfield Digby delivery, clipping the bales off and sending Saleem packing. An honourable knock from a fine man. Clarke was in hugely unfamiliar territory as he moved into the forties with Ran his new partner. With Jonah believing he was on 49, he forced a quick single and dashed to the other end, but was confused, as there was no cheering or clapping from the Kidlington ultras in the stands. Alas, I was on 48, but oh well, only need one more run to bring up an unlikely 50. With that quick single, Clarke held the strike and was ready. Swinbrook brought on the 15 year old, Eisner, who was fresh from his century with the bat. A tricky step up in pace, Jonah found it difficult to face but the single would come, surely… Well, Eisner inconsiderately bowled him out for 49, which I just thought was uncalled for, disgraceful behaviour. The veteran, Andrew Wingfield Digby thought it was all over, as he walked up to the stumps and pulled them out of the ground, but he had overlooked the fact that Aman Kalyan was still to come. Clarke was devastated, and double checked both scorebooks, twice, but it was all in vain, he had indeed scored 49. Through his tear filled eyes, he saw Ran hit a few good fours and then Aman proceeded to strike a huge shot, only to be caught for Eisner’s second wicket of the day, for zero runs. In the end he got 110 runs and bowling figures of 0-2, which is just unfair, like, give us a chance mate. This happened with 166 on the board and Swinbrook therefore took the victory by 96 runs.

Overall, Kidlington put on a great show in the field, and did themselves very proud with the bat, top effort on and off the pitch from all, particularly the under 18s, with Aman, Ajay and Josh all helping the skipper to score and Ran, Harry and Josh all putting a shift in at square leg umpire. Thank you very much to all those people for their help and thanks to Gary and Baiju for supporting me as captain. A proud day for my debut as captain of the mighty Kidlington second XI, it was an honour boys, we should all be proud of ourselves.