The first team travelled to Watford Town with high hopes of a victory to start a march up the table.
Kings Langley won the toss and decided to bat first on what appeared to be a road in hot weather conditions. We were quickly made to question our decision as we fell to 18-3. Chrishan Luchmaya-Casey scored 26 off 40 alongside Naveen Samaraweera to reach 50-4 before another collapse. Although the Kings’ batsmen showed grit and determination not to lose their wickets, we fell to 88 for 7. Amit Chhalani then came in with a solid knock of 24 off 43 that helped lead Kings Langley to 148 all out. Naveen finished with a hard fought 56 not out off 108 balls.
Kings Langley’s players sensed that they had reached a decent enough total to have something to bowl at and that they were still very much in the game - but needed a fast start.
Up stepped Ollie Sills and Asanga Gajasinghe with the new ball. Although Ollie went for 9 off his first 3 balls, he managed to snick the other opener off for a golden duck. A partnership then built before the leading run scorer in the league was run out by Ollie, which saw Watford Town slip to 41-2. Further tight bowling from Ollie and Asanga saw Watford Town fall to 54-4. Asanga ended with very respectable figures of 10 overs, 2 for 29 whilst Ollie picked up 2-39 off his 10 overs.
Naveen and Amit understood the task at hand and both backed up their strong batting by bowling well and reduced Watford Town to 86-8 then to 108-9, including an outstanding catch from Radleigh Tant. Naveen continuing his great form with figures of 10 overs, 3 for 25. He is now the club’s leading wicket taker in Saturday cricket this season.
The home side then put on a solid 10th wicket partnership, halving the target to just 20 runs off the last 10 overs. The ball was thrown to Radleigh in the 46th over with the home side just needing 4 more to win. The over went:
DOT. DOT.DOT.
Then, of course, the hero was Kings’ very own RAD VAN TAN!! Bails were flying, stumps were splattered and Kings Langley secured an all-important win by just 4 runs.
Could that be what the first team need to kick start their season? We’ll find out when they host Broxbourne 2nd XI on The Common next Saturday!