FIRST WIN FOR THE BARBARIANS
By James Wheeler
Richard Clarke and Andy Carr were the star performers as our Barbarians Twenty20 team claimed their first win of the season last Thursday winning by 58 runs in a reduced 18-overs a side game against Sky Sports Active at Headstone Manor.
Our opening home game didn’t start until 6.40pm due to ouropposition struggling to break through the rush hour traffic. Sky Sports Activedecided to forfeit the toss and allowed the Barbarians to bat first. The returning Nick Wale and Simon Heaney started off the innings for the club but both Barbarians openers were dismissed without scoring.
Andy Carr fresh from topscoring with and winning the man of the match award against Bushey 2 days earlier continued his form with the bat with a quick-fire 44. This took his tally to a total 100 runs in the 2 Barbarians games this week.
The middle order ofcaptain James Wheeler (6), wicket-keeper Alex Irani (2) and Rajan Modha (1) were all dismissed in quick succession with some questionable shot selection bringing down their downfall. These dismissals left the Barbarians 65-6 after only 8 overs.
Sports Active’s opening bowler Ratik took 3 wickets with his medium pace bowling.
Sajteet Chana and Richard Clarke began to rebuild the Barbarians innings with intelligent batting. With the Sky Sports Active fielders fairly deep inside the inner circle, the pair played sensible cricket, pushing 1s and 2s before both putting the bad ball away. Both players were particularly savage on any bad deliveries.
Clarke, fresh from a firstballer against Bushey on Tuesday, was the pick of the pair scoring runs allround the wicket and he was particulary savage against Anquar taking 24 off his only over. Clarkey finished 59 not out striking 3 sixes and 5 fours. Chana finished 37 not out as the pair put on 102 in only 10 overs for the 7th wicket with the Barbarians finishing with 167 from their 18 overs.
Sky Sports Active’s innings nearly got off to the worst possible start with opening batsman Mark Hirst edging the first ball from Ian Ridley to James Wheeler at slip who somehow managed to drop the catch after juggling the ball 3 or 4 times. Hirst went on to make 41 in only 8 overs with him striking 3 sixes and he played very positively against Ridley and Danny Hawes who was bowling leg breaks.
Ridley eventually got his man with the final ball of his spell, nipping a ball back through the gate and ending Hirst’s well made innings. His opening partner Ankur only made 6 and he was dismissed in the next over when Simon Heaney took an unbelievable catch off the bowling of Hawes. Heaney got under the skier at midwicket but somehow caught the ball with him being unsighted. It was truly a champagne moment.
With the light fading,medium pacer Stephen Kimsey and spinner Rajan Modha bowled tight and both managed to pick up a wicket each. The returning Nick Wale who was making his first app for Bessborough in 3 years bowled some off breaks at the end and picked up 2 wickets.
Kimsey who complained of asore shoulder even managed to run out 2 batsman as the Sky Sports Active innings faded with them eventually finishing 58 runs shorts.
Clarkey for his magnificent performance with the bat was named Man of the Match
Once again the game wasplayed in great spirit with both sides enjoying a drink and a chat about the game in the bar afterwards. Next game for the Barbarians is next Thursday at home against the Sky Sports Football Department.
SCORECARD