Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs Cricket Club
Broadstairs slumped to a 3-wicket defeat away to Folkestone CC in a match, leaving them in 7th place in the Championship with just 2 matches remaining.
The match was almost a carbon-copy of the home fixture earlier in the season with Broadstairs posting a below-par score and the Folkestone tail managing to get their team over the line with little to spare. The day started well enough for the visitors after winning the toss and electing to bat first. Despite the early departure of Nathan Fox, the right-left handed combination of Jay Basu and Olly Skelton took the total onto 125 before the fall of the second wicket in the 31st over. A mix-up between the pair left them both stranded at one end and much to the delight of the home team, Basu (70) was the batter to return to the clubhouse. Broadstairs never really recovered from this and while Skelton (86) continued to accumulate at a steady rate, the team was unable to establish an effective partnership for long enough to take the score beyond the reach of Folkestone. At the end of 50 overs, Broadstairs had limped to a final total of 225-6, knowing that this was likely to be 30-50 runs short of what was needed.
A dropped catch in the 1st over of the Folkestone innings set the tone for the early phase of the reply with the combination of Rudra Dhanday and Shaheer Malik easing their way to 93 without loss. When Malik was caught behind off the bowling of Matthew Frewin, there was a chink of light that perhaps the visitors could pull-off an unlikely victory. Even three wickets later and with the score on 160-4, a win for Broadstairs continued to look improbable whilst Dhanday remained at the crease. He was eventually removed by George Kidd for a very well-made 78 and all of a sudden, the match was up for grabs. Some tight bowling from Matthew Frewin, Chris Kidd, George Kidd and Nathan Fox forced two more wickets and a close call on a run-out could well have changed the course of the match. However, in the end it wasn’t to be and Folkestone reached the target with 7 wickets down and 4.2 overs remaining.
Despite the disappointing outcome, Broadstairs should be able to learn form this experience in order to better pace their innings when batting first and to make fuller use of all their bowling options depending on conditions and match situation.
Next week, in their last home match of the season, Broadstairs entertain Leeds and Broomfield CC who will be buoyant after completing their first win since the end of May.
