Junior Journo: George’s Match Report
On Sunday at The County Ground, Beckenham, Kent Cricket welcomed George, our second Junior Journo in the Metro Bank One Day Cup.
Under 15s tickets for one-day matches are just £1 in the school Summer Holidays!
Our Community Day is THIS THURSDAY at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence:
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George spent the day meeting players and experiencing what it’s like to work as a cricket journalist. Before coming a Junior Journo for the day, he said that he would most like to meet Daniel Bell-Drummond, one of his cricketing idols alongside Stuart Broad & Jimmy Anderson.
As well as getting to interview ‘DBD’ before the Toss, George was also there speaking to Jack Leaning after the coin flip, as well as being on interview duty with both Leaning & Simon Cook after the match, as well as ringing the match bell at The County Ground before play.
His other task for the day was to give us a Junior Journo match report. Here was George’s take on the match:
Going into the match Kent were just favourites. After an impressive win against Surrey where Jack Leaning shone with the bat and ball, Kent were hoping to pick up a third win of the tournament.
Captain Jack Leaning won another toss and decided to put his team in to bat. The Beckenham pitch is usually a very high scoring pitch so Kent were hoping for a big score.
With the bat Kent didn’t start off quite how they would have liked. A tight opening spell caused Kent’s run rate to drop. Compton was struggling a little to score but fortunately at the other end Bell-Drummond was finding his feet. After the opening spell Bell-Drummond started to let loose. The first six came when Bell-Drummond received a half-volley on his pads which he dispatched over the mid-wicket boundary. During this sudden rush of boundaries Compton continued to play the anchor role, rotating strike and getting singles and twos. Bell-Drummond reached his fifty but was then caught out shortly after. This wicket brought in Kent’s in-form captain Jack Leaning. The wicket changed nothing for Compton as he continued to rotate strike whilst skipper Leaning dispatched many of their bowlers all round the ground his best shot was a lovely paddle sweep to the fine-leg boundary. Leaning batted well but was caught on 67 by Cracknell.
This wicket then started a mini collapse of the middle and lower order and Compton was forced to bat in an unnaturally aggressive manner which ended in him being caught out for 60 off 90 balls. The only middle order batter who shone was Grant Stewart who hit an entertaining 43 off just 30 balls and hit Middlesex bowler Andersson for consecutive sixes. That innings from Stewart helped Kent reach a slightly below par 288 all out. However as the game went on this total seemed to be a lot better than it first seemed.
After that slightly average performance with the bat, Kent would have to bowl extremely economically in order to restrict Middlesex. A big moment in their performance with the ball was the early wickets they took. Leaning opened himself with the new ball and bowled a 10 over spell. What a spell it was. He took wickets and really stopped the flow of runs for Middlesex. A quick spell from Bazley saw Middlesex loose two more of their top order batters without them really getting going. After this it was down to Parkinson and Qadri. Both bowlers really stood out in this performance not only because of the wickets they took but because of their economy rates. They were very low for both bowlers this meant that the pacers jobs were easier as the lower order had to try and slog them to score quick runs. That also meant there were lots of easy wickets for bowlers like Jas Singh.
All in all Kent played very well. They ground out runs on a pitch that ended up being hard to bat on and smart bowling changes from Jack Leaning helped them to take early wickets and stopped Middlesex from ever really being able to score at any sort of pace.
By George
George & other juniors in attendance all collected the signatures of their Kent heroes, on FREE autograph sheets, after the end of the match.
The Metro Bank One Day Cup is throughout in the school Summer Holidays!
Kent Spitfires will defend their title at home in Canterbury, with Under 15s tickets just £1!
