Close match against Challow & Childrey

This was an excellent all round performance from Kidlington's super 8's team; another close game against Challow & Childrey that was undecided until the last few overs.

Will Keates gives a player's view:

"Overall, I think the match was good. We had great fielding, stopping it from going over the boundaries and some bowling was delivered well for example when Marcus got a wicket, also great aiming from Sam and Neil. Some people need to be a bit more confident within their bowling. The batting was, in some cases excellent at times. I think the team had put up a well-balanced performance equalising with the other team, but they just got lucky and snatched a few points to win them the game. I personally think everyone had a good game, have come away with something to improve on and I hope for the next game we get a successful win!"

Kidlington went into bat first and gave a much improved performance. Marko Babic (1) and William Keates (2) went into bat as first pair, playing some fine defensive against some very good bowling to come off with 7 runs added to the total. Thomas Lord (2) and Neil Talmaki (8) did some great running between the wickets with excellent communication, adding a net 8 runs to the total. Gabriel Tipper (0) and Sam Fransham (6) upped the scoring rate futher, also running some good ones and twos and adding 18 runs to KCC's total without losing a wicket. Daniel Hunt (2) and Marcus Hewitt (1) added a further 8 to the total with some more excellent running, KCC's net score being 241. Robert Hill (2-0-2-1) had the standout figures for Challow and Childrey.

Sam Fransham (2-1-2-0) and Neil Talmaki (2-0-4-1) opened the bowling with a tight spell; Neil's inspired decision to change to around the wicket bringing him immediate success when he bowled George Heavens. Tom and Daniel shared the wicket keeping, both doing an excellent job. Marcus Hewitt took an excellent wicket and Tom Lord again bowled very well, being unlucky to come up against an in-form Tanish Kalutota who hit a couple of excellent boundaries. Daniel Hunt showed great promise once again bowling with a bit of spin and giving away just 7 runs for his two overs. The remaining overs were bowled well by Marko Babic, Gabriel Tipper and Will Keates. Having been level-pegging until the end KCC leaked a few too many runs and Challow & Childrey took the match with 261. C&C's top scorers were Tanish Kalutota (15) and Douggie Campbell (10).

Tanish Kalutota was nominated by Kidlington as C&C's player of the match for excellent performance with bat and ball; Tom Lord took the same honour as KCC's player of the match for his great bowling spell.

Big thanks to Mo Talmaki for scoring and to Elaine Tipper for being the boundary manager (especially as this week it extended to buying biscuits and collecting Sam's missing kit from home!).

So a great game, close to the finish, with some much improved batting strokes, running between the wickets and fielding. Looks like some of those training drills have been paying off! As ever, more to work on for the next game. Next super 8s is against Abingdon Vale on Wednesday 6 June.