Maiden Miller Century Leads Llamas To Victory

Paul Bridge writes...
A century by Daniel Miller, his first for Reigate Priory, backed up by some superb catching led Reigate Priory to an easy 83 runs win over Bexley of the Kent Premier League in a friendly at Park Lane on Saturday.
With dark clouds overhead, Bexley put Reigate in to bat when they won the toss, but they got no help from either the pitch or the conditions as Reigate put on 50 runs in less than six overs.
Miller had but seven of these runs with eight wides and four leg byes contributing to the total. Oli Hairs in his by now familiar manner had walloped the other 31 runs from 19 balls with four 4’s and two 6’s. But then as so often happens, Hairs couldn’t make the excitement last as he was out the ball after the 50 went up on the scoreboard.
Andy Delmont, batting at number three, scored only four in 15 balls before Michael Burgess and Miller got together for a 71-run stand in 14 overs before Burgess was out for 27 off 45 balls at 141-3, Miller seeing his 50 arrive from 82 balls, now being on 54 not out.
The last time Miller scored a hundred in league cricket was in May 2013 against Camberley in Division One when he made a score of 109 not out batting for Cheam in a score of 361-3 from 50 overs. Bradley Scriven, now of this parish, made 107 in that game and the very same Burgess scored 76, putting on 129 in partnership with Miller.
Harry McInley, promoted to number five, came and went for six runs before being run out at 160-4. However Miller found another longer-term partner in Ali Raja as this pair put on 79 at a run a ball.
Both batsmen pressed, with Miller hitting out as his hundred approached as his running between wickets slowed, the batsman visibly tiring.
Miller’s hundred came from 135 balls with eleven 4’s and one 6. Two balls later he was stumped for 101 at 239-5. Raja, who made 37 off 38 balls was caught in the deep in the next over at 241-6.
Neil Saker (13), Matt Hutcheon (18 not out) and Simon King (5 not out) put on 37 runs between them to see Reigate on 278-7 at innings end after 50 overs.
The opening of the Bexley innings was a homecoming of sorts as steaming in from the Blue Anchor End once again was Will Hodson, back on the cricket field after travelling around the world since the end of the last cricket season.
Hodson did give away 13 runs in his first two overs but then hit his straps by nabbing two wickets for another 13 runs in the following eight overs to finish a typical Hodson contribution: Ten overs on the trot, with good economy (only 26 runs scored) and two of the top batsmen back in the pavilion for 8 and 12 respectively.
Hodson’s second wicket saw number four batsman Jasdev Bassan superbly caught by King, diving forward at deep point, the first of five top class catches in the innings.
Not to be outdone, McInley also took two wickets, after taking over at the Pavilion End following three overs bowled by Delmont. McInley dispatched the number 2 batsman, lbw for 19, and Bexley’s number 5, the skipper Jason Benn, who was bowled for 5. At this stage McInley also had figures of 2-26, but from five overs.
Bexley by now, after 18 overs, were 64-4 when Michael Stevenson joined Aryan Jain, Bexley’s number three batsman and the club’s overseas player from Queensland, Australia.
Ask Bexley’s lively 77-year-old scorer Fred White about Stevenson and he’ll tell you: “ At Bexley he opens the bowling from the Railway End, never the Lakes End, and he bats at number 11.”
Now there’s a syndrome about number 11 batsmen. If a one-time all-rounder gradually is lowered down the batting order until he can bat no lower, he understands the skipper and the coach no longer have confidence in his batting abilities. Fairly soon a self-fulfilling prophecy is taking place. Where the batsman once possibly scored 50s and 60s as a number 5 or 6, he now scratches around with noughts and single figures as a number 11 batsman because that’s how number 11s are supposed to play.
But promote a number 11 to number five or, as in this case, number six and the opposite happens. The batsman now knows the skipper indeed has that confidence in him. When the skipper says: Hero, we need you to bat properly and score runs, the number 11 realises he is being asked to summon the inner Bradman.
Stevenson was promoted to number six because Bexley were fielding a weakened side, with four first team players playing for teams at Loughborough University. Four Under 17 players were taking their places.
Stevenson blocked the first seven balls he received. Then he hit a boundary and a few balls later another boundary. After 12 balls he was 8 not out, double his batting average in 2016 when in 18 games and 12 innings with four not outs, he scored a total of 31 runs with an average of 3.88 and a high of just 10 runs.
It took Stevenson only 24 balls to reach 20 runs. His partner, Jain, took 50 balls to score the same 20 runs. A graceful left-hander Jain knew he was the last effective hope for Bexley and played himself in carefully as a result.
In the 28th over at 114-4, the 50 partnership came up, with Jain on 37 not out and Stevenson on 29 not out. King, captaining in the absence of Luke Beaven, rang the bowling changes. But still the runs came.
In the 36th over the 100 partnership arrived with Jain on 49 not out and Stevenson, the supposed batting duffer, on 45 not out.
By now Jain and Stevenson were batting with ease at almost a run-a-ball rate. The ball was hit sometimes in the air but always, it seemed, just outside the grasp of any nearby fielder. None of the Reigate spectators knew that this was really a number 11 batsman. Otherwise they would have relaxed more.
Stevenson reached his 50 from 62 balls with one of his six boundaries. But then he was out soon thereafter for 53 at 175-5 from another superlative catch by King at deep point, this one off Hutcheon.
And then the wheels fell off the Bexley innings. At the Blue Anchor End King saw Delmont take a steepling catch at long off to get rid of Jain at 177-6. Jain had made 68 from 96 balls.
In Hutcheon’s next over Stanley Wells was leg before for nought at 181-7 and two balls later Alex Shanks was brilliantly caught at second slip by a diving Oli Hairs at 181-8.
Next over, bowled by Donovan, Hairs, still at second slip, took an even more spectacular catch, the momentum of the dive causing him to roll over and over as Archie Hobbs-Moore left at 183-9.
Bexley’s number 10 bat took 11 off Hutcheon’s fifth over to ruin figures of 3-9 by changing them into 3-21. This batsman then tried to take on McInley when he took over from Hutcheon at the Pavilion End. But all that was achieved was another catch to Delmont. McInley ended with figures of 3-41.
Bexley were all out for 195 and the Priory had won by 83 runs, which turned out to be a straightforward win. At 175-4 such a win looked unlikely.
The last word on the game, however, belongs to Stevenson, who was heard later in the bar exclaiming: “You’ll never see me bat at number 11 again.”
Next Saturday the league proper starts when Ashtead visit Park Lane for a 50-over game starting at 12:00 noon.