The second round of the cup competition presented us with a tough away draw to Belhus at their North Stifford ground. On a gloriously sunny morning, Belhus batted first and a talented batting line-up posted an impressive 138 for 2, with 2 of their batsman retiring on 30 and a third finishing not out on 28. Again, the 2 Lukes bowled well, (4–0–20–1 and 4–0–23–1), along with some tidy overs from Jai Patel, Charles King and Steven Lynch. Our remaining bowlers did their level best to contain some hard-hitting Belhus batsmen but this was never going to be an easy task. We had a mixed day in the field with some great efforts interspersed with some not so great ones, but the 13 conceded in wides this week is a massive improvement on the Benfleet game.
The home side’s attack proved to be extremely accurate and gave little away. A solid opening stand between Luke K and Steven put on 60 in 12 overs with Steven retiring on 30. Luke K fell on 27 to one that kept low and skipper Matt J (25no) mounted a late assault but the run-rate proved beyond us as we closed on 96 for 3. Certainly we were not disgraced here against a good Belhus side and are now, as they say, free to concentrate on the league.