Kidlington's 'D'men are too good for Stanton Harcourt!

Overnight rain which persisted until 13.30 meant that the start of the match was delayed until 14.00 and the overs were reduced to 40 per side.
The covers at Stanton Harcourt had done a really good job however and although whoever won the toss was always going to bowl first, the pitch behaved well throughout. Ran De Silva, Kidlington Captain for the day, called correctly and Stanton were asked to bat.
Malcolm Webb(0-20)and Christian Blackford(2-14)opened the bowling for Kidlington and both bowled steadily without an early breakthrough. Experienced left hander Robert Graham(39) batted solidly and Steven Hill(11)played and missed on occasions while trying to bat positively but although the run rate was kept to 3 an over the pair built a good platform with an opening stand of 53.
Baiju Saleem(0-27)came on first change but it wasn't until De Silva(5-19) introduced himself to the attack that things really began to change. In his first over he had Hill well caught, low down, by Chris Carroll.
The succeeding Stanton batsmen would all try to be positive, some would strike boundries but none would stay too long. Chris Carroll(3-44) was now in Tandem with De Silva and the game moved along at a rate.
Carroll bowled Alfie Saunders(10) with a flighted ball but went for 3x4's in the same over. The crucial wicket came when De Silva trapped Graham lbw and with the anchor man gone, wickets tumbled. De Silva bowled Martin Donson(12) then had the dangerous Scott Hambridge(7) well taken by Blackford. A real skier of a catch that he never looked like dropping.
Matthew Fleet(26 not out) batted well in guiding the tail but Stanton slid away. Carroll bowled Drew Tweedy(1) again beaten in the flight, then had Ian Vaughan(0) brilliantly caught diving forward by Christian Blackford. De Silva completed a fine five wicket haul when bowling Matt Waite(10) with a beauty that hit the top of middle stump before Blackford returned to finish things off with the wickets of Matty Eagle and Kelvin Graham both lbw without scoring as Stanton closed on 125.

Kidlington were in positive mode in their reply and although Matt Waite(1-37) began with a maiden it would one of only two bowled. The 2nd over of the innings saw M.Eagle bowl to M.Eagle which is unusual enough to merit a mention but thankfully it didn't result in a wicket. Matty Eagle(0-35) bowled well without luck and moved the ball around. Martin Eagle(20) shared an opening stand of 53 with Razwan Dogar before being caught in the 13th over off a chest high full toss which might have been ruled a no-ball. This over from Scott Hambridge(2-19)would prove to be the only other maiden of the innings, a double wicket one which also saw the the luckless Eric Britton(0) bowled by an inswinger.
The real story of the Kidlington batting howver was a superb innings of 77 from Raz Dogar who was imperious throughout striking 14x4's mostly back past the bowler or through extra cover with booming drives but also included some crashing shots through mid-wicket and square leg. Raz never ceased to try and dominate the bowling and shrugged off the effects of a painful finger injury to carry Kidlington almost to victory before playing on with only 5 runs needed. Micheal Webb(11 not out) and Jon Pyrah(3 not out) saw Kidlingon over the line for an excellent and comprehensive victory.