3 May 2008 St Lukes A vs Town Malling Kent (Friendly) – Away (Timed game)

Report by Evan Huyerman

St Lukes:

James Somers (Capt)

Richard Bent (w/k)

Richard Somers

David Houghton

Mitsi Patel

Hemant Joneja

Shoukat Rahman

Gopi Desai

K Desai

Wasif Zamir

Evan Huyerman

On a lovely warm cloudy day we were blessed with another Saturday of fine weather for cricket. It couldn’t get any better as our Captain won the toss and elected to field on what was a beautiful ground and surroundings in the heart of Kent. The wicket was green and provided good turn for the spinners from all the rain we had during the week, the outfield was thick and slow which meant a fairly low scoring game. Evan and Hemant opened the bowling, but it was Hemant who got the first break through with a nicely taken catch from Richie B behind the stumps with a new set of keeper gloves. Lukes kept the pressure on and the next batmen was bowled smartly by a well disguised slow ball from Hemant. Partnerships formed between the middle order batsman and the scored board ticked over. Shoks took a good catch off he’s own bowling. James bowled well too, taking 2 well deserved wickets. But it was always going to be the spinners that would dominate; Gopi had an immediate impact on the game taking a wicket and tightening the rope even more. In the end Mitsi came to the party and took 4-2-7-4, brilliant performance from the spinners.

After tea Lukes were put into bat chasing a modest 117 to win. Lukes started off by losing Richard S and Shoks within the first 5 overs but Lukes held their cool and with some good individual performances from Richie B, Mitsi and James we coasted ever closer to the total. The run rate increased towards the last 4 overs and Lukes lost another wicket. But Gopi came in and hit a six to relieve the pressure. Lukes coasted to victory against a good side. Good start to what looks like a promising season for the 2^nd team in their new division.

Town Malling 117  1 b Hemant Joneja 4 2 c Richard Bent b Hemant 2 3 c & b Shoukat Rahman 6 4 b Mitsi Patel 58 5 lbw Gopi Desai 2 6 c Hemant b Mitsi 6 7 c James Somers b Mitsi 0 8 b James 14 9 c Shoks b Mitsi 2 10 no 0 11 c Evan b James 3 Evan 8-2-18-0; Hemant 8-3-16-2; Gopi 8-1-27-1; Shoks 7-1-18-1; James 5-2-14-2; Mitsi 4-2-7-4

St Lukes 118-5 1 Richard B c 19 2 Richard S b 2 3 Shoks b 0 4 Mitsi lbw 20 5 James no 26 6 Wasif Zamir c 3 7 Gopi no 11 8 Evan DNB 9 Hemant DNB 10 David Houghton DNB 11 K Desai DNB FOW: 8(2); 9(3); 59(1); 91(4); 102(6)