WEEKEND REVIEW - JUNE 28-29
By Simon Heaney and Alex Irani
Saturday 28 June 2014
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE
Bessborough 2nd XI 107-4 (30.4 overs)
South Hampstead 2nd XI 104 all out (38.3 overs)
Bessborough won by 6 wickets
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
Bessborough 3rd XI 135 all out (39.3 overs)
Southgate 3rd XI 183-5 dec (30.1 overs)
Southgate won by 48 runs
Sunday 29 June 2014
DUKES CHESS VALLEY SUNDAY LEAGUE DIVISION THREE
Bessborough 266-7 (44.5 overs)
Edmonton 265-6 (45 overs)
Bessborough won by 3 wickets
Modha magic for Bessborough
The rain scuppered both of Bessborough’s away sides on Saturday, but the home 2s and 3s were able to complete their games at Headstone Manor - a win and loss respectively – a great testament to the sterling work of our groundsman Lawrence Horsley and the very wise decision to invest in new covers.
Egged on by returning 1s and 4s players eager to enjoy some cricket and take advantage of the bar, the second eleven exorcised the demons from their harrowing defeat at Southgate a few weeks ago by this time successfully chasing down a low target after our esteemed former Chairman Nitin Modha (pictured) had spun his magic on the South Hampstead batsmen, taking an amazing 7-31 in their first innings total of 104.
Despite the early loss of Captain Phil Bush (7) Bessborough’s reply got off to a decent start as Adil Parker (25) found the boundary with some lovely drives, but when he and Will Grogan (16) were out with the half the job done the runs dried up as South Hampstead's fielders circled.
Memories of Southgate came flooding back when Tharshan Kanagaraj (4) was run out following a suicidal call by Sanil Shah, but this time there was no need to panic as Shah (24 not out) and Rishi Patel (21 not out) coolly saw the side home.
The win sees Bessborough move up to joint fourth in the Middlesex County Cricket League Division 3, closing the gap on leaders Osterley to 14 points.
The third eleven came up short in their Middlesex 1987 League Division 1 match against Southgate.
Following a delayed start, Southgate’s numbers five and six Sarfaraz Hafiji (65) and Jeremy Dangerfield (78 not out) rescued their side after Bessborough had removed the top order cheaply with two wickets apiece for Hamish Jeyacumar (2-24) and Haroon Qadoos (2-41). Their quick runs allowed the opposition Captain Mike Carter to make a brave declaration on 183-5 after 30 overs.
Faced with a challenging but very gettable target, Bessborough’s leading batsmen struggled to build on good starts and left the lower order in limbo, not knowing whether to go for the win or hold out for the losing draw, which wouldn’t help much in their relegation battle. In the end, Southgate mopped up after some poor running between the wickets and indecisive hitting as Bessborough finished 49 runs away from the victory line.
On Sunday, Bessborough won an epic tussle with Edmonton on the penultimate ball of their Dukes Chess Valley League Division 3 encounter.
Having won the toss and elected to bat on another belter of a wicket Edmonton got after the bowling and piled on the runs against a mixed Bessborough side fielding a range of players from the 1s down to 4s. Only the bowling of Tom Newland (0-18) and Kibreeth Rameez (1-44) prevented the damage from being unrepairable as the opposition set a big target of 266 from the full 45 overs.
Openers Kushal Patel (36) and Adil Parker (59) set about the chase in blistering fashion, going at 8.5 runs per over before the loss of Patel sparked a mini-collapse. Even following a quickfire 42 from Hemmen Jutla, Bessborough were looking second favorites at 151-5 after 21 overs.
Enter Captain Alex Irani who alongside Rameez (31) kept the scoreboard ticking over and a late assault from Eddie Idrees (19) saw the Borough over the line with a ball to spare. Irani unbeaten on 52 not out to lead his side to victory.
Despite the bad weather on Saturday, Bessborough 1s stay at the top of the Middlesex Championship but the rain out at Perivale Phoencians did allow closest rivals Birkbeck College to close the gap to a single point as they were able to get a game in, claiming a winning draw at Edmonton. Next week the side take on Old Actonians at home.