Great fight from 3rds in thrilling match at the Brake

After a morning of rain we took the field under heavy skies with a slightly damp but good batting pitch. KCC won the toss and decided to bowl. Some wayward bowling from Paul Hewitt gave the batsmen some easy runs but Ran De Silva is on great form and he picked up an early wicket to stem the flow. A bowling change saw Jim Blackford (11-1-42-4) come on and after an uncharacteristically costly first over it was business as usual with some superb tight bowling and 4 wickets to swing the game back in KCC's favour. Ran gave us 12 solid overs with 3 wickets, Tony Launchbury (4.4-0-18-2) kept the pressure on and some good overs from the youth members, including Oscar Hewitt (2-1-3-1) meant that Hook Norton were struggling to get to 150. A stubborn last wicket partnership gave the batting side a lift to finish on 172. The youth fielding was excellent again, Lauren Smith is one of the best fielders in this club and she gave anther wonderful performance. Jack Launchbury did great job behind the stumps taking a fine catch off Jim Blackford's bowling and Josh Swadling took a superb catch at a key moment of the game.

KCC 3rds have had their struggles with the bat this season so it was vital they get off to a good start. Paul Hewitt and new opener Ran De Silva gave them a solid platform with a 101 opening partnership. Ran scoring quickly in a fine innings of 63, Hewitt went first for 39 and suddenly the total looked a long way off as an all too familiar collapse occurred with Kidlington slumping to 110/4.
The captain, Tony Launchbury (26), came in to steady the ship and drag Kidlington back into the match with some big sixes. Tony was caught going for another boundary but was replaced by brother Jed (20n.o.) who continued the attack on the Hooky bowling with some huge hits. Along with Josh Swadling (5n.o.) who hit a beautiful four, they looked to have given KCC the edge in the last over with only 5 needed from two balls but the bowler held his nerve and bowled two dot balls to finish.
Another exciting close match and some great individual performances especially from Ran De Silva and our youth players. Well played Hook Norton who also fielded some talented youth.