Addiscombe 4's narrowly lose to Sanderstead

Report by Aaryan Purohit

After losing the toss, we were put in to bat. Vinay opening for the first time with Jon. We had a steady start, with some good shots by both batsmen. It looked like the Skip and Vinay were going to stick around, keeping the scoreboard ticking. However, a miraculous diving catch at mid-wicket came out of nowhere and Vinay was dismissed.

Nonetheless, we still had a very formidable batting line-up to come, with Martin Stone then coming at 3. After playing some superb shots and accumulating a few boundaries, Martin was then unluckily caught and bowled for 17. Jack Stone was in next and gave the ball a good hit, with him and Jon forming a good partnership. Suddenly things were starting to look back up until the skipper (in true Jon Kuhrt style) was given out lbw for a commendable 31 runs.

This definitely caused a collapse in the batting afterwards, as Simon, Bevan and Tom started to look good, all unfortunately got out by some very good bowling. Young U14 player Haseeb was then in to bat on his adult debut. He hitting some good shots though he was eventually stumped out after failing to get back into his crease. Michael Jones and Alastair both got ducks with Aaryan being the only batsmen left getting 2*.

All hope was not lost however. We got more than we did on Sanderstead Rec the year before and that proved to be a really tight match. We knew that if we bowled tight, this match was still winnable.

After an excellent tea at the Old Saw Mill, we went back out to bowl, with last week's hat-trick taker Aaryan and young (but very promising) U13 bowler Bevan to open the bowling. Aaryan kept it tight, and then Bevan astounded everyone by taking a wicket in his first ball in adult cricket. Especially surprised was the 2nd XI batsman he dismissed who stood there for about 30 seconds wondering what had happened.

Things were looking up and the team’s morale was high. Both openers bowled tightly, restricting the runs, with Bevan attaining a very respectable 2 wickets in his first spell. Aaryan also ended his spell with unfortunately no wicket, but still a decent 0-14 off 5 overs. Then to Alastair and Tom came on. Alastair perhaps bowled a little shaky at first, but soon found his rhythm, picking up a great wicket with Vinay taking a splendid slip catch. Tom also bowled tightly, keeping a great economy, and also taking a great wicket caught by the keeper, Martin.

Jack and Vinay then had a bowl, with Vinay getting a plumb lbw, and Jack taking 2 wickets with some fiery and accurate bowling. With the wickets falling, the match was really starting to heat up.

However, the opposition’s captain had stuck around, hitting the bad ball, and Sanderstead were nearing the target. It was then time for the Skip to bring himself on, with Tom returning on the other end. The bowling needed to be tight - and it definitely was. After some very hard work put in by Jon, he caught and bowled the other skipper who had a 50 off a skier. He was clapped off for getting a great half century. A slight wave of relief came over us with our skipper leading from the front and taking that crucial wicket.

In the end unfortunately, in spite of the great intensity the match had, the remaining batsmen had eventually knocked off the remaining 7 runs needed. It was a really extraordinary game overall, and was very similar to the close game we had last year in the same fixture. Great thanks to Gavin and Patrick for umpiring and Nikhil for coming along and scoring.

Hopefully the 4s can get back to winning ways next week against Beddington at home!