1stXI Match Report: Tunbridge Wells v. Beckenham

Shortly after arriving at the sun-drenched Nevill Ground, the Beckenham scorer was delighted to be greeted by old friend and colleague Andy Bateup, Kent 2nd XI scorer and recently scorer for New Zealand in the Lord’s Test. The track looked good and hard with hope springing eternal that Beckenham could recover from the previous two desperately close defeats and go one better with a victory.

The umpires duly announced that Wells skipper Chris Williams had won the toss and elected to bat first.  From Junaid Nadir’s first ball, it was clear that the track possessed pace and carry and, from the second, a simple slip catch was put to grass off Hugo Williams.  At the other end, the blistering pace of David Moody was always going to be difficult to handle but Nadir continued to have no luck with another simple catch being put down but he finally got his just reward in the fifth over when he bowled Chris Davis for 4.  Moody struck soon after when Harri Aravinthan held a scorching edge to send back Williams for 7.  To ensure the visitors didn’t continue to have things their own way, a fine stand developed between Sam Smith and Viraj Bhatia.  But the catches continued to go down with four in total now and the Wells pair took the score past the hundred with some excellent batting before Trinity schoolboy Ishan Sabharwal terminated the stand on 78 as James Fear pocketed a simple catch to remove Bhatia for 40.  After a tidy but wicketless spell from Aravinthan, Mudit Dayal entered the attack and almost immediately the game swung Beckenham’s way.  First he bowled Smith for 39, in his third over Mike Waller holed out to Moody, he bowled Mark McLean in his fourth and then Aravinthan held an edge off Dave Smith to complete a superb spell of 4-19 in six overs.  With Wells now 133-7, the thoughts from the scoring table were that Beckenham could dismiss their hosts for around 150 to give their notoriously frail batting a reachable target.  With the dangerous Chris Williams still at the crease, this was always going to be difficult as he found a useful ally in Ian McLean and another 30 runs accrued before the return of Moody caused Williams to play on for 27.  McLean continued to bat well and ran like a stag with assistance from O’Beirne and Shepherdson with the score reaching nearly 200 before Sabharwal and Aravinthan took the final two wickets to leave Beckenham with 192 to win.  On the bowling front, Dayal’s 4-30 took the bowling award but Moody’s 2-13 from 10 overs delivered at electric pace was crucial.

Beckenham’s innings started steadily enough until, at 24, Senn was held by Ian McLean off Dave Smith.  Nick Rigg continued to bat steadily, despite the discomfort of a broken finger in the company of James Fear who was unfortunately surprised by a ball from O’Beirne that jumped, hit the edge and Sam Smith accepted the catch.  As Wells now turned to the off-spin of Mike Waller, the next stage of the innings was a sad case of ‘here we go again’ as Rigg departed before another capitulation of the middle-order until the score stood at a miserable 76-7.  Fortunately, albeit rather too late, David Moody and keeper ‘Barney’ Balmforth showed grit, determination and excellent technique (sadly lacking in the earlier batting) in putting together an excellent stand which evoked the possibility of an unlikely victory.  Their stand was the best of the innings and worth 43 before the left-arm spin of Chris Davis ended the innings on 123, Balmforth unbeaten on 22.  In summing-up, the dropped catches did not help the Beckenham cause but with so many of the batting lineup performing like it was the second week in April instead of July, the situation at the foot of the Premier gets worse.

Scorecard: https://beckenham.play-cricket.com/website/results/5093808 (external site)