Across cricket grounds people are talking about Kevin Pieterson, or ‘KP’ as he’s better known, and whether he should be playing for England against New Zealand and Australia this summer. People were distracted from this momentarily on Saturday at the Green as ‘KIP’, or James Heslam as he’s better known, got a magnificent unbeaten hundred to help steer his team to a six wicket win with over 10 overs to spare.
West Herts won the toss and elected to bat and despite losing an early wicket, set about building a good platform to get a big score with opener, Marshall (42), and number three, Smith (47), putting on 97 for the second wicket. But while these two were accumulating runs Tom Greaves and Phil Lill were bowling their off spin with a great deal of control on a very good wicket, only going at two or three runs per over.
Wickets were shared around with Mitch Cooper ending up with figures of 2 for 38 and Ian Osborne finished with figures of 2 for 27 as West Herts settled for 226 for 8 after their 50 overs.
I am not sure what openers Sean Tidey and James Heslam had for tea but it helped them score freely. Tidey played more unconventionally than Heslam but the result was equally as emphatic with boundaries coming at regular intervals. Tidey eventually went for a quick fire 51 off 37 balls including 7 fours and 2 sixes as the opening pair put on 102 for the first wicket inside 13 overs. This took all the pressure out of the Reed run chase and when Alex Mutucumarana came to the crease there was no need to rotate the strike or score boundaries. Heslam and Mutucumarana put on 74 for the second wicket with Mutucumarana being adjudged LBW for 31 with the score on 176 in the 29th over.
If Heslam played second fiddle to Tidey in the opening partnership, he did anything but that for the remainder of the run chase. He spent nearly two and a half hours at the crease scoring runs on both sides of the wicket, showing respect to the bowling if they bowled a good line and length. He never let the bowlers settle and he put fielders under pressure too, turning ones into twos and regularly stole singles. He hit 8 fours and a six in an unbeaten 104 off 109 balls and fittingly hit the winning runs with Stuart Smith at the non strikers end on 17 not out off 19 balls.
This was a convincing 6 wicket win for Reed and while there is always room for improvement, the team controlled this game from the 1st ball to the last. Two convincing wins and a full squad to select from is the perfect tonic going into next week’s clash with newly promoted Botany Bay who have made a good start to the season too.
