On a blistering day Blackheath travelled the short distance down the road to play title contenders Bexley. During the short warm-up, Nosh injured his hand attempting a high catch and was ruled out of the game. Fortunately Swad was available for his fourth comeback game of the season.
Will had no hesitation in batting on what was a flat wicket but we found ourselves 17-4 thanks to some high quality swing bowling and loose shot selection. Shep joined Jamal in the middle and the runs began to come. Shep played nicely for 28 until being yorked by the innocuous bowling of Martin Pesk leaving us still precariously placed on 76-6. Enter Ahmed Akbari. Ahmed played an outstanding counter attacking knock including 2 sixes and 12 fours whilst defending the good deliveries. All the while Jamal, after a period of accumulation was beginning to pierce the gaps and find the boundary. After Ahmed was needlessly run out, Jamal reached his maiden Kent League century whilst Swaddy ensured the momentum remained with Blackheath scoring 40 of 37 balls (including 2 sixes) to set Bexley 274 to win.
After the best tea of the year, Bexley raced to 56-0 before Blackheath started to take wickets with incredible regularity. First a runout to get the aggressive Baines followed by a smart catch by the centurion at backward point to get rid of David Pask, who we knew was the key if Bexley were to get anywhere near.
We didn’t anticipate how quickly Bexley would disintegrate but some beautiful bowling by Ahmed (3-8) and Will (4-5) coupled with some very poor shots meant Bexley were bowled out for 95 in the 19th over!
It’s not often you recover from 17-4 to win by 179 runs – 20 points which keeps us top of the pile. Up the Club!
