1stXI Match Report : Sevenoaks Vine v. Beckenham

The historic Vine cricket ground looked, like so many others at the moment, an arid desert with a green oasis in the centre.  To cut to the end of the story, it was a somewhat more solid batting display from Beckenham for the most part until the disastrous – but normal - middle order collapse against the leg-spin of little Lorne Burns.  Despite the heroic, magnificent efforts of skipper Alex Senn in marshalling a depleted bowling attack, the light at the end of the tunnel is gradually dimming.

The Beckenham scorer was, however, looking forward to an afternoon in the box with old friend Charles, despite the awful season Beckenham is experiencing.  Beckenham won the toss and Alex Senn asked the Vine to bat first on a good-looking pitch.  The innings began against Junaid Nadir and Harri Aravinthan with David Moody obviously being saved for the slope from the pavilion end.  And it was Aravinthan who struck first when Nick Rigg took a superb catch to dismiss Evert Bekker.  Nadir got in on the act shortly afterwards when he trapped Chris Vernon in front to make it a good start for the visitors at 21-2.  A promising stand was ended on 29 when Nadir, having replaced the out-of-sorts Ishan Sabharwal, broke through by bowling Harry Houillon for 13.  That was the last Beckenham for some considerable time as the ominously in-form Vine skipper, Luke Schlemmer, with two Premier hundreds already this season, joined forces with Michael Cowdrey who was also looking in form.  Marshalling his depleted bowling resources expertly, Senn strove to check the run rate and make another breakthrough but to no avail.  Schlemmer cruised effortlessly to 50 at a run-a-ball and Cowdrey similarly in 65.  Brother Adam was tried for an over to test his shoulder injury but came off after a single over as obviously the shoulder still isn’t right.  Schlemmer, meanwhile, was in complete control and batting quite beautifully with the inevitable third hundred arriving in 107 balls.  In view of the shortage of bowling, James Fear was introduced to the attack for the first time this season.  He immediately locked on to a decent line at brisk pace and Schlemmer, with a rush of blood, top-edged to Adam Senn to end a truly magnificent knock of 111.  Cowdrey also was batting splendidly and found a trusted ally in Burns, who has often been a thorn in Beckenham’s side over the years.  The pair ran like stags in sharing a great stand of 74 before the returning Nadir broke through to bowl Burns for 29.   Cowdrey, meanwhile, with his first hundred on the Vine in sight then blew the chance by giving Alex Senn a simple catch when on 95 from the left-arm spin of Sabharwal.  When the overs ran out, the Vine had set Beckenham a challenging target of 285.  Junaid Nadir returned the best figures of 3-53, a fine performance on a ground with a lightning-fast outfield.

With an excellent track to bat on, the burning question was could Beckenham’s batting finally fire for once?  The answer, unfortunately, was no with Alex Senn’s wretched season with the bat continuing as he played a loose shot to depart for 1.  Gethin Roberts, however, was showing signs of his growing maturity with excellent shot-selection in company with James Fear who immediately stamped his class on proceedings with a flurry of scorching boundaries.  The sad statistic is that Beckenham has not had an opening stand of over 50 since the end of the 2019 season but this fine stand between Fear and his young companion gave a glimmer of hope.  Just when he should have been pushing on, Roberts played loosely at Schlemmer’s left-arm spin to depart for 18.  This brought Harri Aravinthan to join Fear and he settled in well to give rise to the hope that he might be due for another decent score to add to his solitary fifty from earlier in the season.  Both batsmen scored freely and seemed in no trouble with Fear’s fifty up in 51 balls.  Sadly Aravinthan’s fine knock ended when he tried to cut Sam Jones’ off-spin that was too close and was bowled for 42.  With Nick Rigg adjudged leg-before shortly afterwards, the situation was not looking so rosy at 113-4 in the 23rd over.  Ross Piller announced his arrival with a six and then batted splendidly as the run rate marched on in a healthy manner with Beckenham looking in a reasonable position if the current pairing continued to push on.  Enter Beckenham’s nemesis, little Lorne Burns on a month’s holiday from his Spanish home, to purvey his leg-breaks from the pavilion end.  The Fear-Piller stand reached 50 when Piller popped a return catch back to Burns to end his fine knock of 38 and then disaster struck from the final ball when Fear edged behind to keeper Houillon for a superb 70.  This effectively was the end for Beckenham as five wickets were given up for 10 runs as the innings crashed to an inglorious end, albeit for a score of 200 for only the first time in the League, and defeat by 81 runs.  Burns with his splendid return of 6-31, deservedly took the bowling award but, in truth, it was another dreadful collapse on a good batting track.

Scorecard: https://beckenham.play-cricket.com/website/results/5093799 (external site)