1stXI Match Report: Beckenham v. Blackheath
Another Saturday and another none-too-promising weather outlook for the visit of Blackheath to Foxgrove as Beckenham set about building on last week’s win against its oldest opponents, the fixture going back to 1866. With no scorer colleague with which to engage in conversation with or confirm details with (when will the League do something about this and dock clubs without scorers five points?)
Blackheath won the toss and sent Beckenham in on a dry pitch but with ominous cracks showing which might make batting rather a lottery. This proved to be the case with uneven bounce right from the outset and the occasional ball lifting sharply. Skipper Alex Senn and Rithik Hari dug in doggedly against Harry Ledger and former Beckenham team mate Mahi Mahfuzul. Hari was the first to go when he touched a lifting delivery to Sikandar at slip. The situation was relieved somewhat through Senn battling away in company with Harry Jones. A useful stand of 30 had been achieved when Jones edged to Jack Hersh in the gully. Tragedy then struck as Senn, who had striven manfully to build an innings, was run out for 25. Worse was to follow as Arafat Bhuiyan, having replaced Mahfuzul had Rob Clements caught from his first delivery. James Fear and Jahid Ahmed tried hard to repair the damage but batting was indeed a lottery with balls lifting sharply or keeping low. There was a break for rain which did not impact on the number of overs and, on the restart with 85 on the board, Fear pulled a short ball from Bhuiyan to be caught on the mid-wicket boundary and then Ahmed fell to a brilliant diving catch by his namesake in the next over.
Now it was time for the lower order to show its mettle and, well-marshalled by Jason Bilimoria and James Balmforth, the recovery was under way. Playing every ball on its merits and trying to score off balls which didn’t misbehave, the score passed 100 before Bilimoria fell to another Sikandar catch. Enter Shojib Ali to join the fray and the two Beckenham batsmen grew in confidence and the strokes started to flow with Ali taking the attack to the opposition bowlers. The best partnership of the innings ended with Ali aiming a huge hit off Bhuiyan only to have a stump removed and, with Mudit Dayal launching the last ball of the innings for six, the innings closed on a very satisfactory 181-8. Bhuiyan took the bowling honours with a fine spell of 4-47.
The Blackheath innings started well for all the wrong reasons with a plethora of wides but, with the pitch still playing tricks, batting was not easy. Another rain break reduced the overs to 48 and the target to 177 and then Harry Jones, replacing Ali, had Chris Cahill well caught by Rob Clements. Another, more lengthy rain break, reduced the overs further to 38 and the target to 155. After the restart, Jahid Ahmed removed Dipayan Paul through a brilliant catch by Fear and then Jones struck twice in two overs to dismiss the dangerous Sikandar through a brilliant Mudit Dayal catch and then had Karunarathna holing out for another catch to Fear to leave the visitors on 77-4 in the 19th over. The advantage was now in Blackheath’s hands as the home bowlers had a wet ball to contend with but Hersh’s vigil was ended by Clements to a catch by Jahid Ahmed for 35. Unfortunately, that was the final success for Beckenham as, try hard as they did, various combinations were unable to part skipper Charlie Sid-Speller and Mahfuzul who were unbeaten at the end on 26 and 49 respectively as the target was achieved in the 36th over. This was a bitter disappointment to the Beckenham team which had put together a challenging total on a difficult wicket only to have the weather intervene. A large question mark must be aimed at the pitch which was one of those relaid in 2019. It was very dry and had all the hallmarks of the groundstaff not being able to water sufficiently as laid down by the contractor due to the amount of midweek cricket being played on the Foxgrove square. And that is the moral of the story.
Scorecard: https://kcl.play-cricket.com/website/results/4146902 (external site)