Douglas Century Sets King’s Up For Victory

• King’s College 225/6 (50 overs)
• St Peter’s College 202 all out (49 overs)

Douglas received good support from Thorn Parkes (25 off 45), Sam Wilson (24 off 55) and William St John (17 off 37) as King's was heading towards a formidable score, well in excess of 250. The fact that they only posted 225 was due to clever and disciplined bowling by St Peter's College in the second half of the innings.

Well before the first drinks break, both King’s openers Nelukshan De Silva and Grayson Hardy were sent back for an early shower bringing Thorn Parkes to the middle in the 7th over. Parkes and Douglas slowly rebuilt the innings before the former threw his wicket away when he was well set for a big score. The out-of-form Wilson came in and provided solid support to Douglas with running hard for singles in the first part of his innings. Both batsmen complemented each other perfectly with Wilson eager to provide Douglas with the strike at every opportunity. They were together for almost 20 overs before Wilson was out, trying to force the pace. The partnership was worth 79 enterprising runs and at 163 for 4 in the 38th over King’s looked like they would exceed 250 runs with the solid batting still available.

St John and Douglas brought up the 200 in the 47th over with the latter registering his milestone at this juncture. He was out at the very next ball holing out to the boundary fielder. St John followed him back to the change room immediately thereafter and St Peter’s was ecstatic at how they reigned in the King’s batsmen, restricting them to a less challenging total. Tyler Jerram and Hayden Dickson batted positively in scoring 23 runs off 18 balls at the end of the innings.

St Peter's was buoyed by the manner in which they restricted King's from running away with the game and approached their innings with care and maturity. They knew that if they built a decent foundation then their brilliant skipper, Harry Plummer, would be able to take charge and dictate terms. This almost worked to perfection as the visitors, on the back of a threatening partnership between Plummer and the young south-paw Dasent, sent shockwaves through the King's think-tank. The home team bowlers sent down too many loose deliveries, allowing this pair to get comfortable rather easily. Campbell Mabin and Hari Kukreja were the most economical of the King’s bowlers with Mabin being electric in the field, ensuring that the dangerous 5th wicket partnership was broken just before it got totally out of control, when he superbly ran-out Dasent. 

When Will St John had Plummer caught behind for a wonderful 53 runs with St Peter's 50 runs adrift, King's escaped an embarrassing outcome as the visitors lower order were outgunned by the revitalised home team attack and fell 23 runs short of victory. Both teams conceded far too many extras, mainly through wides and will need to focus on this area prior to the next round of matches.

Although King's walked away with victory, the St Peter's fightback was memorable and will provide a fair amount of reflection for the rest of the season.

DNB: G Cory-Wright, H Kukreja, C Mabin