KCC 3rds secure first win of season against Westcott

Kidlington 3rds got their first win of the season at home to Westcott in a hard fought game with plenty of youth players on both sides.
Westcott won the toss and chose to field first. On beautifully prepared pitch the Kidlington openers started solidly with Raz Dogar playing a few shots early on and Simon Smith opting to build slowly. After a couple of 4s Raz missed a good ball and John Pyrah followed him back to the pavilion trying to force the pace early on. This brought Ajay Behal to the crease and together with Simon they built a solid platform for the innings with a partnership of 69. Ajay was out to a great catch and was replaced by Mike Webb who continued the good work with Simon to keep the score ticking over. Mike was caught out trying to force the pace, enter Sahil Kalyan for his first senior appearance of the season. Sahil looked perfectly at home and quickly set about the bowling, playing some lovely off drives. Throughout the innings Simon Smith played with increasing confidence and dominated the bowling, hitting over the top on many occasions but also straight driving with ease. Simon eventually skied one and was caught for 70. Paul Hewitt came in a smashed some quick runs with Sahil and then Ran Da Silva to push the score on to a challenging 193 off 45 overs.
Kidlington bowlers got off to a good start with Ran and Ajay both bowling a good line giving little away and both making an early breakthrough. KCC bowlers never let the batsmen get on top and the first change brought Saul Samuel on and he picked a wicket in his first over to really swing the game in Kidlington's favour. Wescott rallied with a couple of decent partnerships but they never really threatened and Jim Blackford ensured there was no chance of a fightback with superb figure of 1/15 off 11 overs including 5 maidens.
Sahil Kalyan was unlucky not to pick up a couple of wickets, his figures do not do his performance justice, he regularly beat the bat and found the edge but was not rewarded for his fine effort. Saul and Ajay returned to pick up another wicket each with a great second spell to close the game out and secure a memorable victory for Kidlington 3rds. It was also a debut senior match for wicketkeeper Matt Comley and he did a great job behind the stumps.