Darts defeat Broadstairs in Twenty20 Cup

Kent League Twenty20 Cup – Round 1

Dartford CC 1st XI vs Broadstairs CC 1st XI
Result – DCC won by 27 runs – scorecard

The Darts made it safely through to round two of the Kent League Twenty20 Cup after defeating Broadstairs in an excellent game at Hesketh Park.

The visitors won the toss and asked the Darts to bat first with Jay Dassrath and Adam Clarke opening the innings. Dassrath departed early for 7 and in form Sunny Birring joined Clarke at the crease. An excellent partnership was built with Clarke (46) and Birring (59) piling on 111 runs for the second wicket through a combination of excellent ‘nurdling’ and running between the wicket to accumulate runs, together with attacking strokeplay piercing the field to find the boundary. Both departed towards the end of the innings but the foundation for a big score was laid, and Ross Allen (15no) and Mark Lewis-Ranwell (10no) helped the Darts reach 151-3 at the end of 20 overs.

Broadstairs came out to bat in attacking fashion with opener Neil Brennan finding the boundary a number of times in the opening three overs. A sharp piece of fielding from Mark Lewis-Ranwell helped the Darts find the breakthrough they needed with Jake Benfield run out for 1. Ross Allen then started to apply the pressure with some tight bowling taking 1-17 from his 4 overs, and when Adam Clarke removed Brennan for 35 via an edge behind to Harry Bell making his 1st team debut at the age of 15, the Darts were assuming control of the game. Sunny Birring backed up his 50 with the bat by taking 5-20 with the ball from his 4 overs to run through the middle order and bowl Broadstairs out for 124 completing a 27 run victory for the Darts.

Photo courtesy of Brinn Osland our Aussie who is not eligible to play, instead capturing Adam Clarke getting cleaned up avoiding his first DCC jug!