Young guns shine despite Second XI defeat
Despite being on the losing side in a combined Kent/Sussex Second XI team beaten by 10 wickets by Hampshire, two of Kent’s emerging young players showed their future potential with excellent individual performances in the Second XI Championship.
In the home side’s 304 all out at Polo Farm, recent signing Tawanda Muyeye scored an impressive 68 on his debut, with 13 fours, 52 of his runs coming in boundaries.
Born in Zimbabwe, Muyeye, who qualifies as a domestic player, won the 2020 Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year Award for his exploits playing for Eastbourne College. In the 2019 season he scored more than a thousand runs, including 56 sixes, and hit two double centuries.
Another Kent youngster, off-spinner Hamid Qadri, enjoyed himself with the bat, hitting 75. Kent bowler Nathan Gilchrist scored 38 in the innings.
In their first innings, Hampshire’s Seconds slumped to 173 for 6, but recovered to 391 all out, with their experienced South African all-rounder James Franklin smashing 15 fours and five sixes in an innings of 149. Kent’s young all-rounder Marcus O’Riordan took 3 for 54 and Gilchrist 2 for 73.
Trailing by 87 on first innings, Kent/Sussex were bundled out for just 99 in their second, leaving Hampshire to require just 13 runs, for a convincing three day victory behind closed doors, ending on 16 for 0. Gilchrist, 34, and Kent colleague & Academy Scholar, Will Harby, 22, top scored for the home side in a partnership of 40 runs for the seventh wicket.
The next Second XI Championship match starts on Monday 3 May, when Northamptonshire Second X1 will be visitors to the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence. Because of current COVID restrictions, no spectators are allowed to attend matches at present and this match will be played behind closed doors.
By Peter Burrowes
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