Hayes 3’s – OEs Turn-er the screw to put away lacklustre 3rd XI

After last week’s rain the 3s played host to Old Elthamians 1st XI with captain Couldrey back at the helm on the Meadow. Coludrey continued his success at the toss and having won decided to bat first.

Matt Warne opened the batting and with regular opening suffering with an Oasis induced illness, Warne was joined at the crease by Joe ‘The Stud’ Bradshaw. The OEs openers bowled tight lines, and it was hard for the Hayes batter to freely score. Vijay Raman got the first breakthrough trapping Warne in front lbw. Bradshaw and Verma built slowly, with the score at 50 Bradshaw was caught of the bowling of Raman again.

Rayyan Ali was comfortably the pick of the batters and scored at a good rate. Having ground the bowlers down Verma looked to accelerate but he was dismissed for 34 (75) and Hayes were 85-3. Greenway feeling brighter came out looking belligerent but having looked to go after the bowling he was bowled by OE’s captain Tuner whilst sweeping. Ronnie Buddin joined Rayyan at the crease and the youngsters pushed the scoring on Ronnie scoring at 137.50 SR. They added 52 for the 5th wicket taking the score to 152 before Buddin was out, bowled, off the bowling of Jaywant. OEs keeper Rajendram was required to bowl, and he did for Ali who fell 2 short of a 50, Johnny Wilkie who couldn’t repeat his lower order heroics and Luca Baker finishing 3-19 off his 3 overs. A slightly better than a run a ball cameo from Millard and Hayes finished 170-8 off their 40 overs.

Hayes batters will feel that could have possibly pushed the running and maybe looked to get after the bowling sooner to push the score on. However, it felt like it could be a competitive total but would require a good start.

After his batting heroics, Ali took the new ball with Luca Baker. OEs innings got off to a fast start, the ball was swinging and at times the Hayes bowlers strived to do too much which was creating scoring opportunities for OEs. Luca Baker snuck one through the gate of Andy Hammond and shortly after Ali got his reward taking the end of the dangerous Jaywant dismissing him for a duck and leaving OE 49-2.

Naughty Tom Davis hunting his 400th wicket for Hayes started the game on 397 and when he drew a false shot from Turner which was snaffled smartly at square leg by Verma Hayes felt like they were in the game. Wicket 399 came shortly after Davis trapping Akshay Bhat lbw for 2 (13) OEs were 76-4 and the game felt again in the balance.

Credit where credit is due Tom Irwin and Keeran Rajendran kept their heads managed to overcome the challenges of small sightscreens to knock the ball around and play low risk, high percentage cricket. The pair had a 51-run partnership before Ronnie Buddin bowled a jaffa which pulled Irwin over and wrapped him on the pads. Baker came back on up the hill and seeming found his end. He knocked over Rajendran for 31 and Hayes were back with a sniff. Josh Cryan had other plans, it’s fair to Cryan had one game plan, if it was in his arc it was going, he smashed 2 4s and 2 6s racing to 25 and when he was bowled again by Baker it felt more like a consolation wicket, although it earned Hayes 3 additional points which could be all important as the season goes on.

The game ended with a somewhat light hearted moment Warne came on to bowl with 3 needed and he was struck through the covers, everyone on the pitch baring Joe Bradshaw seemed happy the ball was going to go to the boundary, however it slowed in the outfield and The Stud chased it down, threw the ball in and kept OEs to two keeping the game alive for 2 more balls.

I had to leave early so if there was a presso this week I missed it however in the group chat, Captain Couldrey awarded the PotM for Hayes to Rayyan Ali for his 48 and tight bowling.

However, it doesn’t sit well with me to award the PotM of the overall game to someone from the losing side on this occasion. Irvine Turner’s explosive batting at the start is certainly worth an honourable mention but given his overall all-round performance: batting, bowling and keeping the overall PotM deservedly goes to Keeran Rajendran who scored 31 and steadied the ship for his team when they needed it, stepped up and took 3 wickets in the death as well to stem the flow of runs at the death.

Next Week the 3s looked to rebuild with a trip to the Warren against Beckenham.

Notable Performances:

H(K)CC:

R. Ali 48 (56) and 5-2-15-1
L. Baker 9-1-39-3

OECC:
K. Rajendran 31 (55) and 3-0-19-3
I. Turner 42 (35) 9-0-48-1 and 1 catch