King's Cricket: Inexperienced King’s outsmarted by slick Sacred Heart College

The relatively inexperienced King’s XI, without the services of seven leavers from the 2021 edition was outsmarted by a slick Sacred Heart XI.

The skipper, Nick Tapper was the only player sporting a maroon baggy and the seven new faces in the team experienced 1^st XI competition for the first time ever.

King’s were expecting to set a massive target at the 18^th over stage with the score on 70 runs for the loss of James Nelson but the threatening partnership between Tapper and Karl Wallace was brought to an end when the skipper was stumped playing a risky stroke.

After this juncture the visitors took full control of proceedings and only some gutsy and sensible batting from Jack Priddy and James Wilson ensured that King’s posted a respectable score just short of the 180 mark.

The fact that King’s could even contemplate a score in excess of 160 was due to the magnificent batting of the opener Karl Wallace who was featuring in his eleventh match, just one short of his baggy. Wallace was dismissed for a breezy 74 runs and should be disappointed in not securing a century as he was untroubled throughout his innings.

King’s seam bowlers, apart from Tapper and Josh Olliver, lacked consistency and Sacred Heart’s top order batted with maturity, awareness and guile to ensure that a winning platform was set by the half-way stage of their innings.

A brace of wickets late in the innings gave the spirited King’s some hope but this was short lived as the opposition skipper ensured that his team gained maximum points from this key first round encounter.

The much-vaunted King’s top order, apart from the impressive Wallace, failed to deliver and will have to rebound next week when they visit St Peter’s College.

King’s lose by 3 wickets