WEEKEND REVIEW - JULY 19
By Simon Heaney
Saturday 19 July 2014
MIDDLESEX CHAMPIONSHIP CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
Wycombe House 1st XI 146-8 (45 overs)
Bessborough 1st XI 171 all out (54.5 overs)
Winning draw for Wycombe House
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE
Bessborough 2nd XI 289-6 dec (46 overs)
Wycombe House 2nd XI 135 all out (28.1 overs)
Bessborough won by 154 runs
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
Indian Gymkhana 3rd XI 210-8 dec (39 overs)
Bessborough 3rd XI 113 all out (29.3 overs)
Indian Gymkhana won by 97 runs
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION FIVE
Bessborough 4th XI 221-8 dec (39 overs)
Wembley 5th XI 197 all out (52 overs)
Bessborough won by 24 runs
Bessborough lose top spot
A slightly shorter weekend review this time around as your correspondent has been mostly spending his time at Lord’s watching England’s batsmen demonstrate the art of giving your wicket away.
Back to the serious business of the Middlesex Championship promotion race, Bessborough let slip their place at the top of the league which they have held for five weeks after a losing draw at Wycombe House.
The hosts had our batsmen in trouble at 39-4, but a well-crafted 70 from Nirav Ghantiwala (pictured) – in the process becoming the joint leading Bessborough batsman alongside Andy Carr with 417 runs in all competitions this season – helped the side recover to 171 all out from 55 overs.
In turn, Bessborough’s bowlers ripped into the heart of the Wycombe House line-up and looked on course for victory when they had them on 84-8 after 24 overs; Neal Patel (3-45) and Ramesh Gunalan (3-26) doing most of the damage.
Yet, with 21 overs left to get the remaining two wickets Bessborough’s bowlers couldn’t find a way to remove Wycombe House’s number eight Aamir Ahmed (17 not out) and number 10 Sohail Elahi (40 not out), the latter proving to be a real thorn in our side having taken four wickets in the first innings.
Without giving any more chances, Wycombe House ended on 146-8 and claimed the four points from the winning draw by virtue of a faster run rate. Bessborough’s solitary point wasn’t enough to keep the first team in pole position as Osterley beat Perivale comfortably to move four points ahead of them. It is very tight at the top with just 11 points separating the leading five.
Hemmen Jutla came the closest of any Bessborough players to a century this season with a fine 97 for the second team in a comprehensive win against Wycombe House.
Bessborough raced away to 289-7 from 46 overs thanks in large part to an opening stand of 85 from Ishan Shah (35) and Adil Parker (62) and later on a fifth wicket stand of 125 between Jutla and Alex Irani (37).
The win was wrapped up fairly quickly as Wycombe House were dismissed for 135 in 28 overs; pace bowler Rohan Desai taking a season’s best 5-35, while spinners Nitin Modha (3-63) and Mitesh Vyas (2-34) did the rest of the work.
The draw moved the 2s up to fourth in the Middlesex County Cricket League Division 3.
As this writer has not seen the scorebook not much is known about the third eleven’s game against Indian Gymkhana other than they suffered a heavy 97-run defeat that keeps them mired in the Middlesex 1987 League Division 1 relegation danger zone.
Bessborough 4s got back to winning ways with a dramatic 24-run win against bottom of the league Wembley 5s. Batting highlights were a blistering 56 from William Gill, a more classical 45 from skipper Sahil Hath and gritty lower order knocks from Richard Ward (36 – including our esteemed secretary’s first ever six for the club) and Dipak Chavda (36 not out).
In reply, Wembley were looking a far stronger outfit than previously encountered and at one stage towards the end looked favourites. Bessborough’s situation was not helped by sloppy fielding and routine dropped catches. It was only when Ravi Vyas (2-24) returned for a second spell that the game turned back in the home side’s favour, with the young swing bowler getting rid of the Wembley skipper Tony Singh (34) soon after he had bowled Thakker for a duck.
Even then Bessborough needed two more wickets with the remaining overs ticking away fast. Firstly, Majid Abbasi (3-25) stepped up trapping Nikil Surendrakumar LBW without scoring and then in the penultimate over Eddie Idrees (1-29) hit the middle stump of Thavarasa Kandasamy (4) to seal the win.
Bessborough move up to fourth in the Middlesex 1987 League Division 5 and will be looking for their first back-to-back wins of the season this coming weekend away to near neighbours West Harrow.