Broadstairs welcomed Ashford in their hunt for promotion. Matt Hardy lost the toss and Ashford opted to bat. Bradley Ellison and Chris Flint shared the new ball and Ellison struck with the final delivery of his first over, nicely taken by Chris Kidd at slip.
Flint bowled well from the other end, beating the outside edge regularly. An expensive second over from Brad contained two boundaries but he got his second wicket in his third over, Pichowski finding Flint at cover who took the catch. Tegg was in good form for Ashford, three boundaries coming from one of Flint’s overs before Brad collected his third, superbly caught by Oli Frewin at mid-on. At 41-3 from 8, a couple of tight overs followed.
Chris Flint finished his spell (6-0-35-0) and before Chris Kidd started his spell, Brad picked up wicket number 4, caught by George Kidd. Liam Tegg was quickly running out of partners; could Broadstairs find a way of dismissing him or just keep him away from the strike?
The two older statesmen of the team toiled away, beating the edge on numerous occasions and conceding only 9 runs in 5 overs before Kidd struck, another catch for Oli Frewin and the very next over Brad got his second 5fer of the season, George Kidd staying patient and waiting for the ball to eventually come down from very high and taking a comfortable catch.
Ellison’s spell had finished (10-6-15-5) and George Kidd replaced him. Ashford were limping along but Tegg was still at the crease and could score big; but with the scoreboard at 59-6 he had a lot of work to do. Both Kidds bowled well, beating the bat but runs were coming, a few wides and the odd boundary. There was a sense that Broadstairs thought the work was done and wickets would come easy but Ashford were making us work for it.
It was George who ended the stand of 34 with a superb delivery hitting Foad’s off stump. Chris was replaced by Jay for 3 overs before being brought back to finish his spell. Unable to get another wicket, he finished his spell (10-0-36-1), George also finished his spell (7-0-21-1) and Oli Frewin entered the fray. Another frustrating stand of 42 was ended when Tegg charged Oli and missed the ball, Bailey taking the bails off and Tegg had fallen for a well-made 75 out of the 135 total.
In his next over Frewin had Buckham caught at point by Fox and the final wicket fell in his next over when Diedrick holed out to Matt Hardy and we bowled Ashford out for 146 in 43 overs.
Frewin ended with 3-20 from 5 and Jay 0-18 from 5. A good bowling display even though we weren’t quite at our best, hopefully we’re saving that for next week.
Jay and Nathan opened-up after the tea break and tucked into some friendly bowling from the off; after 10 overs we had reached 65. Jay had his half century and was in good touch, his timing was perfect and his touch just as good, from cover drives and pulls to running it down to third man or pushing it to mid-wicket taking singles. Natty at the other end being just as brutal to the bad balls.
The introduction of Buckham didn’t slow the run rate, Jay helped himself to 3 boundaries in his first over and the classy batsman from Kolkata was on fire, the watching crowd could sense a hundred, Jay could sense a hundred; could he get back-to-back hundreds?
The century partnership came in the 15th over, could we knock them off without loss and how quickly could we do it? Firstly, Jay reached a superb century in the 20th over from just 87 deliveries and when Nathan hit the winning runs the next over, we had a ten-wicket victory, Nathan finishing on 37 from 40 deliveries.
We couldn’t have asked for more with the bat and despite the victory we could have done more with the ball. Our bowling will have to be at its best thisweek against a decent OD CUACO side who sit 13 points ahead of us.
Again, it was great to see so many spectators at the ground cheering us on.
Ashford 146 all out (43)
Bradley Ellison 5-15, Oli Frewn 3-20
Broadstairs 147-0 (21.1)
Jay Basu 103*, Nathan Fox 37*