Kent Bowlers Battle In Vain
On a fine day at Canterbury, Kent CCC welcomed the star studded Redbacks to the ground for what was likely to be a fantastic game.
Kent were always going to be up against it, in 3 seasons Kent have only managed to beat the Redbacks on one occasion (VB Cup 1st Round – Season 2) all other meetings Blewy has lead his side to comprehensive wins.
On a slightly green pitch, it seemed that it wasn’t going to favour either batsman or bowlers.
However on winning the toss Kent elected to bat first and the decision seemed to be a good one when the opening pair of Gibbs and Cox put on a quick fire 43 for the first wicket.
However as typical of Kent these days, we did our best to fall apart quicker than the Bangladeshi cricket team facing Australia.
Once again it was left to B.Allen who held one end down but wickets just kept falling at regular intervals with only two of the next eight batsman managing a score over 10. Allen reaching his 50 before being the last man out for 58.
Kent: 168 All Out (34 Overs)
B.Allen 58, H.Gibbs 31; S.Bond 5/31, H.Axelby 2/20 and M.Harrity 2/26
In reply the Redbacks would need just 169 runs at a very comfortable 3.3 an over.
However Kent CCC are never ones to give up easy and were determined to make life hard for SA, and they got of to the best possible start when T.Murtagh had one of the danger batsman M.Jenkins caught for a 10 ball duck.
However this ment that Kent’s day just got worse as the evil devil that is Lehmann walked to the crease, who on every occasion has destroyed Kent single handed… the last match it was a massive 120 from about 80 balls, today however he played a much more controlled inngs (still Top Scored though L ) he was well supported by the former ACT duo of S.Williams 24 and B.Dennet 35.
S.Bond not renowned as the best batsman in the world, held his nerve and played a solid innings and saw his side all but home with 19* (43).
However the travelling Redback fans had their hearts in their mouths with the scores tied at 168/7, when M.Saggers struck two wickets in three balls.
However T.Murtagh bowled a maiden and Saggers kept the batsman waiting for that one lone run to win, bowled five super deliveries before concding a single from his last ball of the over.
However on a sour note the game no doubt would have been even tighter had Kent’s star spinner been allowed to bowl at his nominated 1st / 2nd change, rather than about the nominated 4th change bowler in D.Marsh.
South Australia: 169/9 (49 Overs)
D.Lehmann 43, B.Dennet 35; M.Saggers 2/25, M.McCague 2/32 and T Murtagh 2/32
South Australia won by 1 wicket
Man of the match is S Bond