Imber Court vs Kings

Sunday 13th June

Kings won by 99 runs

After a fews disappointing weeks Kings returned to winning ways at Imber Court. Kings were able to field a far stronger side than previous weeks with Perry, Mears, Miller and Pipe all returning to the side, along with President Dave Miah playing his first game of the season. On a bright sunny day Kings won the toss and elected to bat first enabling the experienced opening pair of Perry and Miller to open the batting together for the first time since the first game of the season. It was a landmark match for two players as Joel Miah won his 100th cap, whilst James Melligan won his 50th.

The batsmen soon started to dominate against so useful bowling from the home team and reassuringly Perry was soon finding the boundary with some classy drives. Miller also seemed to be rediscovering some of his form with some fine pull shots. The pair were back into their stride and had posted 30 by the 10th over. Perry continued to impress and he struck a magnificent six off Rodgers. However in the 15th over Perry, having survived one close appeal for leg before then attempted to sweep Rodgers and this time was the appeal was upheld (71-1). There then followed an second excellent partnership as Miller and Joel Miah mixed some fine running with some well struck boundaries. As the score pushed on the home team pushed back the field to protect the boundaries allowing Kings to work the ball into the wide open spaces. The introduction of the leg spin of Medcroft seemed to offer Imber some hope as he extracted some significant spin in his first over, but after that he struggled and Miah was particularly savage on some full tosses. Miller strode on to record his first fifty of the season and seemed in little trouble until he was caught on the long on boundary off Pritchard (152-2) having added 81 for the second wicket. A third wicket fell when Melligan unfortunately picked out the cover fielder (161-3). Miah was joined by Mears, who frustrated the bowlers with little pushed and nudged singles. Meanwhile, with ease, Miah moved passed fifty before while attempting push on he was caught off the bowling of Deans (199-3). With 5 overs left now was the time for Kings to post a reasonable score beyond 200. Unfortunately in this push wickets tumbled and 6 wickets fell for the addition of 35 runs. Only Mears kept the innings pushing along and with a his ability to pick up all around the ground he took his personal total to 37 before he was dismissed in the final over. By the close Kings had pushed the score to 234 - what looked around par for the pitch and fast out field

 

Kings knew they would need a good tight start to the innings if they were to defend their total. Mackie was the main threat and he made the early running by putting the hosts first 13 runs on the board. However his innings was brought to an abrupt end when Daye bowled him  (13-1 4th Over). Both opening bowlers had found the right length to bowl on the pitch and both look likely to make a second breakthrough. Both beat the outisde edge on several occasions but Pritchard and Cassidy survived. The breakthough final came when Pritchard drove at Pipe and Daye took the catch at mid on (45-2 13th Over). Both bowlers finished their spells with respectatbale retruns to be replaced by Paul Bygrave and James Melligan. Despite the change of bowlers Kings kept the pressure on as both Melligan and Bygrave found the right areas from the off. Melligan struck in the 18th over when he took a smart return catch to dimiss Cassidy (66-3), and three overs later Bygrave cleaned up Hall (75-4). So at the halfway stage the host were well behind the required rate but after recent weeks Kings knew this was the period of the game that could slip away from them. However this week saw them produce some of the best cricket of the season, Bygrave claimed his second wicket when Pipe caught Brand (87-5) and despite a counter attacking partnership between Deans and Rodgers the late introduction of Joel Miah paid big dividends. Miah took an equally smart return catch to dismiss Rodgers (129-6) and then Mears took a steepler of a catch off Melligan to dismiss Medcroft (130-7) the game was all but won. Melligan claimed his 3rd wicket when he dimissed the battling Deans for 41 (130-8) and the innings was brought to a close when Dave Miah took just five balls to take the final wicket (134 all out)

 

It was an excellent all round performance, with Miller, Perry, Miah and Mears all returning to form with the bat, whilst all of the bolwers did an excellent job on what was an good batting wicket

KINGS	HOW OUT	BOWLER	RUNS
D Miller	Ct. Melson Jnr	b. Pritchard	62
D Perry #	LBW	b. Rodgers	38
J Miah	Ct. Brand	b. Deans	53
J Melligan	Ct. Brand	b. Pritchard	5
O Mears	Ct. Melson Jnr	b. Deans	37
S Pipe	Run Out		5
D Miah	Bowled	b. Mackie	5
P Daye	Bowled	b. Mackie	1
P Bygrave	Not Out		3
R Young *	Bowled	b. Deans	0
Extras			25
Total	all out off 40 overs		234

BOWLER
Melson	7-1-43-0
Mackie	8-1-27-2
Rodgers	5-0-31-1
Melson Jnr	3-0-21-0
Pritchard	8-0-47-2
Medcroft	3-0-24-0
Deans	6-0-21-3

IMBER COURT	HOW OUT	BOWLER	RUNS
Mackie	Bowled	b. Daye	13
Pritchard	Ct. Daye	b. Pipe	14
Cassidy	Ct.& b	b. Melligan	16
Deans	Bowled	b. Melligan	41
Hall	Bowled	b. Bygrave	5
Brand	Ct. Pipe	b. Bygrave	9
Rodgers *	Ct.& b	b. J Miah	20
Medcroft	Ct. Mears	b. Melligan	0
Melson Jnr	Ct. Young	b. D Miah	3
Melson	Not Out		0
Extras			14
Total	all out off 33.5 overs		135

Bowler
S Pipe	8-1-26-1
P Daye	8-0-23-1
P Bygrave	4-0-19-2
J Melligan	8-0-44-3
J Miah	5-0-14-1
D Miah	0.5-0-2-1

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