WEEKEND REVIEW - JULY 6-7
By Simon Heaney
Saturday 6 July 2013
MIDDLESEX CHAMPIONSHIP CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
Turnham Green & Polytechnic 1st XI 201-9 (55 overs)
Bessborough 1st XI 205-2 (37 overs)
Bessborough won by 8 wickets
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE
Bessborough 2nd XI 188-7 (55 overs)
South Hampstead 2nd XI 192-6 (36.1 overs)
South Hampstead won by 4 wickets
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
M.T.S.S.C 3rd 230-9 dec (46 overs)
Bessborough 3rd XI 156-9 (46 overs)
Winning draw for M.T.S.S.C
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION FIVE
Bessborough 4th XI 148 all out (44.2 overs)
Hampstead 4th XI 149-0 (23.4 overs)
Hampstead won by 10 wickets
Sunday 7 July 2013
CHESS VALLEY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE
Bessborough 1st XI 169 all out (30.3 overs)
Hampstead 170-4 (30 overs)
Hampstead won by 6 wickets
Bessborough maintain promotion charge
Bessborough moved joint top of the Middlesex Championship with a resounding eight-wicket victory at Turnham Green & Polytechnic on Saturday.
Despite the scorching heat, Bessborough Captain Dan Hawes decided to take to the field after winning the toss, backing his troops to chase a target after the batting heroics of last week’s win against Old Actonians.
Pace bowler Neal Patel (pictured) made an early breakthrough bowling Turnham Green’s opener Roland Bryan for a duck in the third over, but despite some tight and probing bowling from Patel – who conceded only eight runs in his opening seven-over spell – it wasn’t until Hawes brought on his spinners Alexander Haniff (1-74) and Rohan Karkhanis (3-56) that more wickets fell.
A dropped chance to remove the dangerous opener Ed Lush (57) when he was in the twenties could have proved more costly, but having reached his half-century the Turnham Green player walked past a sharp turning Karkhanis ball for keeper Will Grogan to expertly stump.
With a few wickets in hand, Turnham Green chanced their arm towards the end of the innings with some big shots from Lovell (37) and Jamil Ahmed (24), but the reintroduction of Patel into the attack proved decisive as the young quick bowler got rid of four lower order bats as the home side used up all 55 overs to finish on a respectable 201-9.
Patel, playing only his second match of the season due to his medical studies finished the game with clinical figures of 5-32 from 13 overs.
With 28 runs coming in the first five overs of Bessborough’s innings it seemed that openers Hawes and Tharshan Kanagaraj had agreed during the tea break to get to the target in boundaries rather than kill themselves running in the blistering heat.
The swift progress was halted slightly when Kanagaraj missed a straight full toss to be out for 14 lbw to David Boothroyd (1-40) with the score on 30, but normal service was quickly resumed as number three Haniff joined Hawes in hitting boundaries all around the ground.
The pair added 121 runs for the second wicket when Hawes eventually gave way with a tame caught and bowled to Solly Strickland (1-38) after hitting a fluent 79. Hawes now has an impressive 429 league runs at an average of 61.29.
While Bessborough sides of recent years might have wobbled when needing only 50 or so runs to win, this current team is made of sterner stuff. The powerful Talha Junaid came in at number four and elegantly smashed an unbeaten 46 from only 22 balls to finish off the game in only 37 overs. Haniff's 54 not out raised his Middlesex Championship tally to 312 runs at an average of 78.
The win gives Bessborough 45 points at the halfway point of the season, the same points as M.T.S.S.C. and Crouch End, with Old Actonians a single point behind.
Bessborough are the only unbeaten team in the league after nine weeks and will be looking to keep up its good run of form in this week’s home match against fifth-placed Birkbeck College. The Headstone Manor-based side picked up a winning draw when the two sides faced each other in May.
In contrast to the first eleven’s impressive performances and results, the rest of Bessborough’s sides are struggling for form and are all mired in relegation dogfights.
Bessborough’s second eleven remain rooted to the bottom of the Middlesex County Cricket League Division 3 as they were beaten by four wickets at home to South Hampstead.
Batting first, Bessborough posted 188-7 from their 55 overs thanks in large part to lower-order knocks from Mark Emanuel (55) and Mitesh Vyas (45 not out).
The same two players each picked up two wickets as Bessborough made inroads into the South Hampstead line-up, while Rishi Patel threw down an astonishing direct hit to run-out the opposition captain, but ultimately the away side were comfortable winners as they reached the target with overs and wickets to spare.
The third eleven held on for a well-earned losing draw against table-toppers M.T.S.S.C. who set an imposing target of 230 in their innings.
Some powerful early stroke play from Bessborough’s Haroon Qadoos (44) and Cecil Dinesh (31) suggested that victory might be on the cards, but a flurry of middle-order wickets meant that the lower order was instructed to save the game.
Fresh from taking three wickets, number seven batsmen Stephen Kimsey Jr. batted for 26 overs for a stoical 3 not out to frustrate the opposition who were left one-wicket shy of victory as Bessborough closed on 156-9.
The fourth eleven were outplayed in all departments by the runaway Middlesex 1987 League Division 5 leaders Hampstead, who in truth are probably a match for most clubs’ second elevens.
After being put in, Bessborough started off reasonably with openers Simon Heaney (23) and Praekash Balendra (53) getting the home side to 40 runs after nine overs, but the fall of Heaney’s wicket induced a batting collapse with Bessborough’s batsmen proceeding to give the opposition simple catching practise.
Balendra nearly carried his bat during a patient half-century, his first for the club, but he became one of nine caught-out victims when understandably trying to up the run-rate for the last wicket.
Hampstead’s openers showed their class with Steve Jarvis (89 not out) and Rupert Wilson (49 not out) largely untroubled as they coasted to victory in 23 overs.
On Sunday, Bessborough suffered defeat for the first time in the Chess Valley League as Hampstead once again claimed the maximum points in their second visit of the weekend to Headstone Manor.
Captain Nirav Ghantiwala put up some resistance with 72 as Bessborough were all out for 169 from 30 overs. In reply, Hampstead lost only four wickets as they cruised to the target in the same number of overs.