SVCC Men's 3rd XI v Beckenham 3rd XI (H) - 08.06.24

The Vine 3’s hosted Beckenham 3rd XI at Otford, and skipper Williams won his first toss of the season & opted to bat first. Openers Peters & Taylor made good progress, one of the opening bowlers was seen off after conceding 27 from his 4 overs. The other bowler was proving far more tricky conceding only 1 run his first 4 overs & removing Taylor with one that stopped on him. Williams joined Peters but soon departed to the same bowler who now had 2-1. Verma joined proceedings but found scoring difficult and he was stumped trying to accelerate the scoring. At drinks Vine were 60-3. The opening bowler finished with 2-8 from his 9 overs. Henderson was now in and looking to make progress before being bowled for 10. Rajah was next in & was going well before given out LBW to one he nicked onto his pads. Peters unfortunately fell soon after for 29 which brought Bromley & Read together. They looked to up the tempo & batted well before Bromley fell for 25. Young entered the fray & played his trademark reverse sweep with great aplomb before also going LBW to one that flicked his glove before the pads. Dickinson helped Read tick the score over, Vine finishing 144-8 which looked below par.

Vine took the field & Poole & Rajah opened things up. They were beating the outside edge regularly but nothing got nicked, Rajah eventually made the breakthrough bowling one of the openers for 5. The same pattern continued and anything not quite the right length or line was punished on the very fast Otford outfield. Rajah took a 2nd wicket in his final over to have Beckenham at 67-2. Dickinson & Young took over the bowling and both bowled well but like before, Beckenham played sensibly, punishing anything off target and eased their way to the target. Young took a late wicket but Beckenham ran out convincing winners reaching their target in 31.5 overs.