Impressive Grammar brings King’s unbeaten streak to an end

The 14-match unbeaten streak in 50-overs cricket that started in December 2019 when Dimithri Gallage scored a century against St Kentigern College came to an end at the hands of Grammar today. Grammar looked to be the more urgent team from the outset and trumped King’s in all facets of the game.

King’s undoubtedly had an off day, especially the batsmen who had got themselves into a shell and did not fight hard enough to break the shackles. This was not helped by the potent Grammar opening bowling attack, especially Angus Olliver who justifiably ended up with a five-wicket haul. He was quick and accurate most of the time and was superbly complemented by his opening partner. None of the Grammar bowlers conceded more than 2.5 RPO and this clearly shows the dominance of ball over bat. Max Chaplin opened with Achindra Molamure and both had departed by the 7^th over with the score on 12/2. This did not seem like a bad omen with the batting depth available but the dismissal of Muhammad Abbas, the most experienced player in the line-up, in the 9^th over would have sent a ripple through the rest of batsmen to come.

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Nick Tapper then joined Karl Wallace and the slow rebuild began. There was a ray of hope as the partnership exceeded 30 runs but when Tapper was given out stumped, much to his disenchantment with the decision, for a fighting 22 runs (51 balls) the King’s innings went into free-fall. The much vaunted lower-middle order, as capable as they are, succumbed to the relentless Grammar onslaught. Louis Anderson and Liam Denny showed some resistance but the inability to build partnerships brought the King’s innings to an abrupt end on 92 runs with almost 10 overs unused.

At lunch King’s would have harboured hopes of winning this match as they’ve defended small totals before but on a good wicket, against a batting team on form, it required every single moment to be perfect. The opening partnership of 37 runs laid the platform for victory and the fall of the first wicket brought the prolific run-scoring skipper to the crease. Jamal Todd batted positively and made sure his team was on the front foot all the time. King’s picked up a few wickets but small 20-30 run partnerships kept them at bay with Grammar earning their first victory over King’s since late 2017.

Based on today’s lacklustre performance, the 6-wicket loss flattered King’s. Defeat in this manner is hard to digest but this King’s team has the ability to play to a high standard as they recently showed against Westlake and MAGS so they should reflect on this loss and become stronger for it.

King’s lose by 6 wickets.