Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs CC have climbed to 5th place in the Championship after a nail-biting finish to an excellent day’s cricket at home to The Mote CC. The hosts needed to reverse the narrow loss they had suffered in the away fixture earlier in the season in order to allay any concerns that they might be drawn into a relegation battle at the end of the season. As it turned out, the outcome was in the balance throughout the afternoon until the very last ball when Vaishak Venugopalan, in his last match for the club this season, blasted a shot through cover to reach the target of 197 set by the visitors. Earlier in the afternoon saw some careful batting from The Mote on a tricky pitch with seven wickets collected at regular intervals by Jake Benfield, Matthew Frewin and Venugopalan, each with two-apiece as well as a wicket from debutant 15-year-old Yuv Gupta. As the innings drew to a close, a spectacular boundary catch by Nathan Fox saw off the threat of power-striker Charlie Hodgson and even the batting team joined in the applause for what many described as the best catch they’ve seen in club cricket.
In reply, the Broadstairs opening partnership of Jay Basu and Ollie Skelton accumulated runs at a modest pace, knowing that ticking things over at 4 runs per over would see them home. When Skelton was dismissed at slip, Fox joined Basu and advanced the score to 74-1. At this point, from a position of calm, some nervousness kicked-in with a series of three relatively quick dismissals. The initiative then started to shift towards the fielding side when Basu was eventually removed for 71 with a freak delivery that rose-up and struck his glove en route to the ‘keeper. This called for some cool heads from skipper Matt Hardy and Matthew Frewin who duly obliged with a partnership of 46 including just two boundaries. As the score crept relentlessly towards the target, Hardy (39) was caught with just 4 balls remaining and 5 runs still required. Step-up Venugolpalan to together with Frewin (25*) saw the hosts home with win by 4 wickets to the relief of the home support.
Next week, Broadstairs will be back to full strength as they host Bromley Common. With just four points between them and 8th placed Folkestone, this will be seen as another key fixture to achieve maximum points and consolidate their mid-table status.
