Shehzads Give Tonbridge The Trio
Offham CC 1st XI – 189 for 9
Tonbridge CC 1st XI – 190 for 5
Tonbridge made it a hat-trick of wins last weekend, travelling to Offham and winning by five wickets.
The home side won the toss and elected to bat on a beautiful sunny day, but saw their lead scorer Ben Gittings dismissed by Martin Batley in the third over. The Tonbridge attack bowled beautifully in the opening fifteen overs, and none more so than Khurram Shehzad who picked up a wicket with his first ball. His brother Nadeem was also in the mood as he picked up two quick wickets, including Jamie Powell for 21, which left Offham struggling on 50 for 5. The pitch was a little spicy, so captain Harry Legg decided that best course of action was to attack, hitting a powerful 58 to being his side back into the match. He was well assisted by Daniel Blakeburn who struck 47. Khurram returned later in the innings to pick up a couple more wickets, ending with excellent figures of 4 for 24, and in doing so keep the target under 200.
Tonbridge opener Chirag Patel got the innings off to a flyer, hitting three boundaries in the first over. He would go on to hit 34 before being caught off the bowling of Gittings. A succession of good starts saw the score continue to tick over, with Aussie Ollie Peake hitting 33, but the innings belonged to Ben Morgan. Despite playing in his first game of the season, Morgan looked very fluent, hitting a succession of booming cover drives before being removed by Gittings (2 for 38) for 47. As with last week, it would fall on skipper Mike Jessop to pick up the final runs, and in doing so secure a third successive win.
Tonbridge host Borstal next week hoping to extend their run of victories.
Marshall The Pick, Gulzar The Hat-Trick
Tonbridge CC 2nd XI – 233 for 9
Offham CC 2nd XI – 197 for 9
A superb all-round performance from Tonbridge 2nd XI secured a hard fought 36 run victory over Offham.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Tonbridge got off to a flying start thanks to a brilliant century from Julius Marshall (103 off 106 balls), who anchored the innings with 13 fours. He was brilliantly supported by Stefan Ronan (42 off 32), as the pair put on a strong 81 run partnership. Despite a mid-innings wobble, Dilshan Fernando (30 off 20)* provided a much needed late surge, to push Tonbridge to a competitive 233/9. Offham’s John Olufawo (6/35) was the pick of the bowlers, ripping through the middle order.
Offham’s reply was led by Gary Flint (44) and John Olufawo (58), who kept the hosts in contention with a 110-run partnership. However, the game turned when Nabeel Ahmad Gulzar (4/33) dismantled the middle order, with a jawdropping hat-trick. John Tuscano backed up the bowlers with two sharp catches, piling the pressure on Offham. Liam McLaughlin with a great bowling performance (3/40) and Anthony Shepherd (1/32) tightened the screws in the death overs, restricting Offham to 197/9 despite a late cameo from Felix Eyre (32 off 30).
Tonbridge travel to Borstal next week looking to make it back to back wins for the first time this season.
Tonbridge 3s Win Game With Ease
Tonbridge CC 3rd XI - 126 for 9
Bexley CC 6th XI - 125 All out
It has been over 40 years since our last Tonbridge 3rd XI, and they did not disappoint in what turned out to be one of the most nail-biting finishes we've ever had on Saturday beating the Bexley 6th XI by 1 run in this 35 over game.
Batting first, after winning the toss, Tonbridge had a steady start with captain Nicholas Carne-Ross top scoring with 25 runs. Many others also got a good start as wickets fell, helping build the score up for the first innings. An honourable mention should go to our U15 Elliot Wiggins who struck 13* towards the end of the innings giving us a reasonable score of 126 to defend against Bexley.
Bexley's side started off strong and steady, with Stuart Ladbrook and Dinura Rajaratna creating a great opening partnership of 39 runs. Then Tonbridge gave a great reply with Tom Matthews claiming the first wicket quickly followed by Suhas Polukonda claiming the second. From there on Bexley's chase was slowly unravelling as wickets were tumbling from the brilliant bowling partnership of Ryan Carne Ross and Suhas Polukonda who claimed 3 wickets together in 3 overs.
Following this battle between the two sides came another partnership between Gary Carter (16) and Dean Webster (21*) which was then broken by our U13 Jess Tuscano. Nearing the end of the game , Bexley need 7 runs to win off the last 6 overs with 4 wickets in hand with things not looking so great for the Tonbridge side. However, our young squad never gave up with a special death bowling sequence from Suhas Polukonda claiming another 2 wickets giving a brilliant 4 wicket haul whilst Pawan Kumar finished it off in style with an amazing yorker claiming his second wicket of the Bexley side, bringing home the victory.
Brilliant Game overall provided from both clubs as our 3rd XI seal the victory for the Tonbridge CC to enjoy their trilogy of wins.
Picture below of Julius and Nabeel following the conclusion of the 2nd XI game.
