With the sun shining brightly on a (shall I young and sprightly) Kings Hill side, we won the toss and elected to bat. It was a decent track and DJ and Giles started solidly and DJ going on to hit some brilliant trademark shots which had the oppo scurrying all over the field. In comes Gaz next. With two lefthanders now at the crease, runs were flowing like champagne on a new year’s night! Next in was Noah, who really showed who the boss was. What a solid knock, with a great variety of shots all around. Quintin and Ata then picked up the baton and tried to do some justice to the fantastic start. But the cameo that came next was a treat to watch – what a knock by Bobby, seeing us through to post a cracking total of 265.

The bowlers then picked up from where the batters left off, with a tidy tight spell from Mick and Atif, giving them no room to attack. We spotted a batter early who loved cutting every ball and had the right fielders in place, to choke their runs. The fielding all around was phenomenal, especially Bobby who threw himself at the ball as if his life depended on it (not just because his family were watching from the sidelines!) Sohail and Adeel then carried on with bowling duties and executed them with finesse and perfection. Quintin and Noah also chipped in with some crucial wickets. The game was full of ups and downs and was getting tighter and tighter. Four overs left and 44 to win…. Three overs and 34 to win….19 in two… then it was down to seven runs in the last over. We had run out of all our key bowlers and Captain Ata then had to take an executive decision and decide to bowl (his first over, and the last over of the match - couldn’t have asked for a better time to bowl). But his team had faith and the rest is history. They fell short by one run. We won, but it really was cricket which was the winner out there. In fact at one point, in true spirit of the game, we even recalled their batsman who was given out stumped by their square leg umpire, but had actually just managed to get in.

I am sure this game will go down in our memory as one of our most enjoyable games of cricket.

Up the hill!

Report provided by Ata