KCC U13s ease to victory against Oxford Downs

On a lovely sunny day Stratfield Brake Kidlington under 13s faced a strong Oxford Downs side in the 11 a side league. It was always going to be a tough fixture but this year’s under 13s are developing into a strong unit. Once again we called on support from our under 11s and all three (Joshua Behal, Thomas Sherwood & Sacha Sandelson) performed really well.

Downs won the toss and got off to flyer with 28 coming off the first 4 overs and after six overs they had a batsman retired on 30. It was looking like a tough day but KCC pulled it back with some excellent bowling and fielding and with regular wickets they restricted the total to a decent but hardly daunting 96 on a very fast outfield.
The KCC opening bowlers (Kamran and Saul) gave their usual disciplined display but it was the support bowlers who stole the show this week. Thomas Wynn, Ben Hague, Oscar Hewitt and Jack Launchbury all bowled with good control and restricted the batsmen mainly to singles with Jack and Ben claiming wickets. Further wickets were taken by the under 11 bowlers Thomas Sherwood and Sacha Sandelson who both troubled the Oxford Down batsmen. The Oxford Downs innings stumbled to a close with some great fielding from KCC which brought a couple of run outs and a good catch by wicketkeeper Alec Puleston resulting in a target well short of what was required on a good pitch.

The KCC batsmen knew they would have to bat well but with a strong batting line up and excellent form they approached the target with confidence, Saul Samuel (20) once again scoring quickly before being caught at mid-off. Alec was unlucky to be caught early but he was replaced by Lauren Smith (12n.o.) who played an excellent support role which allowed the other batsmen to go after the boundaries. Sacha Sandelson came in at number 4 for his first innings for the under 13s and what an impact he made scoring 26 in no time. This moved the game firmly in KCC's favour and after Sacha was caught in the deep going for a last boundary, Kamran Ramzan (24n.o.) was next in and he made sure of the victory with a superb display of batting, hitting 5x4s to seal the win.

In the end it was a comfortable win for Kidlington, the KCC batsmen looked at ease with the bowling and cruised to victory with 5 overs to spare. The outstanding performance of the day was from one of our U11 players, Sacha Sandelson who took three wickets with his leg spin and then hit a quick 26 runs to help set up the victory.

A superb win for KCC U13s, excellent team effort and attitude, well done to Saul for leading the team to another victory.