In their last match of the season KCC pulled out a great team performance to come close to beating BNOCC, the strongest team in this year’s u11 league. It was a hot dry day on which wickets were hard to come by for both teams, but all our players concentrated hard on the task. With contributions from everyone, the boys did Paul proud whilst he was on leave for a family event.

Bicester batted first with the sun out and very hot from the off. KCC had put out 12 players for the match, so we rotated our fielders – special thanks to Luca van der Linden, Luke Wyatt and Ben Eagle for substituting in the field.

Bicester’s top three are a dangerous group but our opening bowlers Sam Fransham and Matthew Wyatt did a great job of restricting them to ones and twos. KCC’s fielding was much tighter than in previous performances which helped to keep the scoring down. Aaryan Jagnani was athletic behind the stumps and Marko Babic put in a fine display, saving several boundaries from Bicester’s big hitters – a performance which saw him awarded the match ball at the end of the game.

Coming in at the fifth over, Billy Worsley provided the most threatening spell of bowling, taking the key wicket of the opener Farrance (17) and ending with superb figures of 3-0-9-1. Knocking off the ones and twos with some impressive running between the wickets, Bicester’s other two star batters retired with James leaving the field on 26 and Scott on 27.

After they had departed the run rate slowed down with Neil Talmaki (3-0-20-0), Max Earp (3-0-22-0) and Will Pratt (3-0-16-0) putting in some good overs. Matthew Wyatt (4-1-17-0) bowled a brilliant maiden for the penultimate over, being very unlucky not to take a couple of wickets. Sam Fransham (4-0-23-2) took the final eventful over which saw two of the middle order clean bowled and a last-ball run out. Bicester posted a total of 114/4 for KCC to chase.

In reply KCC’s openers Max Earp and Jacob Evans did well to see off Bicester’s opening bowlers Ilbury (4-0-24-0) and Scott (4-1-8-0) without loss, Scott in particular putting in some fiery fast balls. Max was caught for a creditable 5 in the sixth over, bringing Sam Fransham to the crease. The captain accelerated the scoring, hitting 10 runs off Clamp in one over before a skied shot off Batten in the 10th saw him caught at mid-on for an entertaining 12.

This brought together Neil Talmaki and Jacob Evans for a productive period. Jacob (15) put in a very solid performance combining some great defence with some lovely strokes, eventually being c&b Farrance in the 14th over. Neil put in another superb innings, starting carefully but accelerating later and retiring after a 26 which included five boundaries. Particularly pleasing was an eye-catching straight drive down the ground for four.

By this point Bicester’s total looked just out of reach with the required run rate heading towards 10, but Aaryan Jagnani (8), Ben Eagle (6*) and Luca van der Linden (0*) put in some great performances to add to KCC’s score and see off the last two overs in which Scott and Ilbury returned to the attack.

All in all it was a great team performance with contributions across the board, played with excellent application and in a good spirit. After being very heavily beaten by Bicester two weeks ago this was a much improved display from KCC in all departments, and on another day it could just as easily have gone our way. A fantastic way to end the season.

Thanks to everyone who came to watch and cheered the team on – it gives great support to them all. Special thanks to Jon Pratt for umpiring and Mo Talmaki for taking on the ‘boundary manager’ role, sorting out kit, substitutions and drinks.

That’s the last competitive match of the season but we will continue to meet on Tuesdays until the school summer holidays begin.