WEEKEND REVIEW - MAY 4
By Simon Heaney
Saturday 4 May 2013
FRIENDLY
Harrow St Mary’s 1st XI 165 all out (40.2 overs)
Bessborough 1st XI 218-3 (45 overs)
Bessborough won by 53 runs
FRIENDLY
Hanwell Town 2nd XI 192-9 (40 overs)
Bessborough 2nd XI 197-7 (40 overs)
Bessborough won by 5 runs
FRIENDLY
Wealdstone Corinthians 49-0 (11.5 overs)
Bessborough 3rd XI 46 all out (16.5 overs)
Wealdstone Corinthians won by 10 wickets
FRIENDLY
Wealdstone Corinthians 87 all out (15 overs)
Bessborough 3rd XI 88-5 (11.5 overs)
Bessborough won by 5 wickets
Another Hawes century as Bessborough win at HSM
Bessborough signed off its pre-season with a confidence-boosting win at local rivals Harrow St Mary’s on Saturday, thanks in large part to a second consecutive century from Captain Dan Hawes.
Hawes won the toss and after looking at what turned out to be a very hard and true wicket decided to bat and set a total. Hawes and fellow opener Wayne Whitson (51) made a positive start with strokes to all parts of the ground. Their partnership of 82 came mainly in boundaries and set a solid foundation for the other Bessborough batsmen.
Hawes and Adil Parker (20) added a further 63 for the second wicket, before youngster Talha Junaid added extra impetus with a quick-fire 24, which included a massive straight-hit six.
The Bessborough captain nearly missed out on his second century in two weeks as he struggled to get back on strike while stuck on 99, but finally achieved the milestone with three balls of the innings remaining after only facing two balls in the previous three overs.
Hawes’ unbeaten knock of 104 came in 132 balls and included 15 fours and one six. That nearly flawless innings, aside from some dubious calling which HSM failed to capitalise on, helped Bessborough post 218-3 after 45 overs.
In an eventful first over, Nirav Ghantiwala dropped Sam Blennerhassett off his own bowling when the HSM opener skyed the second ball attempting a pull shot, but Bessborough’s strike bowler made amends two balls later when he bowled HSM’s left-handed overseas player Zac Sheather around his legs for a golden duck.
HSM weathered the initial storm and Blennerhassett (26) and Lakmal Kasthuri (41) started to hit runs fluently off Ghantiwala (1-28) and Jay Chavda (0-34) around the Headstone Lane ground.
The game changed when Hawes brought on his two left-arm spinners Nitin Modha (3-37) and Rohan Karkhanis (3-34) in tandem as the runs soon dried up and wickets fell at key moments just when HSM looked to be getting back into their stride.
With the run-rate dropping HSM were unable to build momentum and it was left to Fateh Singh (1-8) and Rajan Modha (2-16) to clean up the tail as the home side were all out for 165 after 40 overs, giving Bessborough a convincing 53-run victory.
Bessborough’s second eleven won by a much narrower five-run margin in a hastily-arranged friendly against Hanwell. The 2s were due to play a side from Harrow St Mary’s who were forced to call off at the last minute as they were unable to raise a team.
Captain Phil Bush continued his rich vein of form with a brisk 95, including 16 fours and two sixes. At the other end, Bessborough’s batsmen were able to stick around with Bush for solid partnerships, but struggled to get many runs of their own. Only Ray Maloney (13) and Eranda Jayasinghe (29 not out) made it to double-figures as Bessborough completed their 40 overs on 197-7.
In reply, Hanwell’s innings stuttered along as wickets fell regularly. Manish was the only Hanwell batsman to take the fight to Bessborough with a powerful 80, but his cameo was not quite enough as the home side came up short on 192-9.
The wickets were shared out between the Bessborough bowlers with Kibreeth Rameez (2-18), Vish Jayawardene (2-21), Stephen Kimsey Jr. (2-32) and Ian Ridley (2-39) each picking up a couple.
It was a case of Jekyll and Hyde for Bessborough 3s as they slumped to a 10-wicket humiliation away to Wealdstone Corinthians when bowled out for only 46.
Some pride was restored in the “replay” as Bessborough cleaned up the opposition for 87. Captain Nathan Theebaraj claimed 3-10, while on-loan Corinthian Raj Meswani picked up an even better 3-7. Wicket-keeper Peter Doole showed his class with four stumpings.
Bessborough reached their target in just under 12 overs with opener Priyatharshan Sathananthan (35) and number three Cecil Dinesh (26) taking most of the plaudits.