Brilliant KCC 3s Team Performance Crushes Hanney 2s

Having won the toss the captain Ran de Silva put the opposition in on a typical early season slightly damp pitch despite having 10 ten men only to field with. The 11th man Paul Hewitt was unavoidably delayed and arrived just as the Hanney 2s inning had finished. We must give a Paul a great deal of credit as the 3s included 5 of his talented youth.

Two of the Kidlington youth Kamran Ramzan and Lauren Smith opened the bowling. Both bowled tightly but the first wicket was not taken until the 6th over by Lauren with 14 on the board. Lauren who finished with exceptional figures of 4O 2M 4R 1W was replaced by the canny and experienced Gary Woods. His 2nd over was a 2 wicket maiden. Gary's 4 overs cost him 4 runs for 3 wickets. In the mean time Ran replaced Kamran and in his 2nd and last over took a 3 wicket maiden. He was unlucky with the hat trick ball which swung away from leg stump to miss the off stump. Jack Launchbury replaced Ran, and Jacks' bowling too was exceptional. Jack finished with figures of 3O 2M 3R 2W. Another youngster Joseph Keighery again bowling well finished the Hanney innings off just as young Oscar Hewitt was warming to bowl from the other end. Joseph with his new shortened run up was a much improved bowler. The fielding of Kidlington throughout the match was of a high standard. The commitment to fielding was great to see as we even had the spectacle of our Chairman John Moss diving onto his bad knee to save a run. The net result was that Hanney was all out for 38 runs.

When Kidlington came on to bat the pitch had dried a touch but the batting was still not that easy. There was no hurry as Kidlington had all of 45 overs to get 38 runs. John Moss opened the batting with Kamran Razwan. The wicket of Kamran fell in the 7th over with 6 runs on the board. Martin Eagle came into bat determined not to give his wicket away. This was a perfect situation for Martin who stayed there till the job was completed. In the mean time John Moss started to play his normal game with some few hefty hoicks including two 4s and a 6. Finally John was bowled out for 25 going for glory. It was left to Razwan Dogar to finish the game off with lovely swivelled pull shot.

Match was played in good spirit by both sides. Like Kidlington, Hanney too had some youth players in their team. The umpires too were very friendly which helped the spirit of the game. At one point the opposition captain in jest asked for the wicket keeping gloves back from Raz, who attempted to stump him. The opposition had been good enough to loan Raz with a pair of wicket keeping gloves.