Surrey Championship Division 5
Kingstonian 160 all out (37.2 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 162 for 6 (31 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon, (10 points), beat Kingstonian, (0 points), by 4 wickets
Stoke D’Abernon’s 1st XI opened up their 2010 Surrey Championship campaign with a four wicket win over ten man Kingstonian in near arctic conditions at the Stoke Rec.
Siddhartha Lahiri won a third successive toss and chose to field in the damp. Opening bowlers Tim Handel and Jake Lavender made excellent use of the favourable conditions and shared the first four wickets to fall, oddly the Kingstonian no.3 Ali was the first batsman dismissed with the score on 22, following the retirement of opener Hussain to a groin strain, when he edged to keeper Tom Frost for a duck. In the next over Lavender collected the key wicket of visiting captain Khalid who mis-pulled a short ball to Ralph Coleman at mid wicket.
Handel, (2-34), and Lavender, (2-27), traded wickets again as the former gave Tom Frost another regulation edge to dismiss Abbas; then Lavender pressured A.Tahir into a rash shot and Lahiri showed good hands at slip. 32-4.
Opener Hussain returned and with S.Tahir built a partnership of 63; but it was broken by Hiken Shah who trapped Hussain leg before for 24; Shah then reducing the visitors to 99 for 6 in his next over when another leg before appeal was upheld to remove Sikander.
Running out of partners S.Tahir became more expansive but could make little headway against Shah and fellow slow left armer Will Frost who both showed great control with the wet ball.
N.Malik offered S.Tahir support with an unbeaten 27, but the latter’s effort finally came to an end when he reached 70, picking out Will Gudgeon to give Ian Hopton a wicket for his efforts.
Will Frost collected a deserved wicket when his brother pulled off a smart stumping to account for Khan; and Hopton closed the innings on 160 when he effected the run out of H.Malik.
The Stoke innings began with a wayward delivery that yielded four byes; but with just 13 on the board both openers Lahiri and Brian Berthoud were back in the pavilion when they fell in successive deliveries from H.Malik and N.Malik.
Handel and Shah re-built the innings with a partnership of 71, hitting 33 and 37 respectively, crucially getting Stoke well ahead of the asking rate were the dark skies to send down any match-ending showers. They too fell on the same score, (84), Handel finding one of only nine remaining fielders after Hussain’s second departure; Shah falling lbw just as he was looking to cut loose.
An excited visiting side were lifted further when Jack Raimondo spooned a return catch off a ball from Khalid that stopped on him to leave the Stoke lower order with work to do; but form man Tom Frost found an excellent ally in Gudgeon and they calmed nerves with a partnership of 60 in just 8 overs either side of the drinks break.
The pair were respectful of the good ball, taking what was on offer and running aggressively; and it was a shame that Gudgeon fell in what would be the last over for 16; leaving Frost to finish matters, and complete a well constructed half-century, (52 not out from just 47 balls faced), with successive boundaries to rubber stamp the win and secure a bonus point with 17 overs to spare.
Scorecared Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10911096
Next week Stoke travel to Chertsey hoping to avenge the narrow defeat they suffered in the corresponding fixture last season.