East Horsley

Sun  7 August                             East Horsley                           Won by 18 runs

We    222/7 in 46 overs (Shahzeb 62, Ghosh 47,  T.Khan 30*, McLellan 5/45)
They 204/10 in 43.4 overs (A.Drake 59, McLellan 55, Brown 51, Chaggar 3/42, Shanker 3/44, Nayar 2/20, Amar 2/35)

As the England-India test series has become hopelessly one-sided, it has fallen to KCC to keep up interest in the highest forms of the game.
KCC won the toss and elected to bat. Rohan Ghosh (47) put on a steady start with Chris Ledger (who was still reeling somewhat from the festivities marking his personal half century the previous evening) and was unlucky to miss out on a half century. Shahzeb survived several attempts at running himself out, but played some delightful shots in between to help himself to 62. He was ably supported by Pammi Chaggar (21), but East Horsley kept the run rate in check with some impressive bowling, particularly from Rob McLellan (5/45) who also took what looked to be a superb catch diving full length forward at the boundary to get rid of Tabrez (20 in quick time), but sportingly declined to appeal as he thought it was a bump ball. Stefanos Nayar’s verdict was “they wanted to keep him in”, though he subsequently retracted (was made to retract?) the statement. The run rate dragged along at 4 an over for 39 overs until Tabby decided that enough was enough and, sans helmet (naturally) slapped the bowling around to reach 30 in no time at all and help KCC post a respectable 222/7 by the time a delightful tea was taken.

East Horsley started the chase watchfully, and were pegged back to 37/3 thanks to accurate bowling from Amit Shanker (3/44) and the wiles of that man Neeraj Nayar, who conceded just 16 runs in his eight over spell. The introduction of skipper Sen’s off-spin opened the floodgates as Ant Drake (59) and Brown (51) tucked into anything short, and for a few overs it looked as though the hosts would canter home to a comfortable victory as KCC (particularly Furquan, who found himself in the uncomfortable position of boundary rider) chased leather. However, Pammi Chaggar held his nerve to keep things under control – just, while el presidente Sunil Amar produced a golden spell to tilt the balance back in KCC’s favour. At 151/8, KCC would have been entitled to think the game was effectively over, but again, Rob McLellan (55) had different ideas as he put on a 51-run partnership for the ninth wicket with young Dominic Carpenter, who contributed 1 run to this figure. With the game threatening to get out of hand, Tabby produced a disciplined spell of death bowling which enabled the re-introduced Neeraj to induce McLellan to hole out to long-off and then pick up the last wicket to give KCC a win by 18 runs.
Great sighs of relief accompanied the excellent post-match hospitality and we look forward to another great match next year!