WEEKEND REVIEW - MAY 9-10
By Simon Heaney
Saturday 9 May 2015
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE - FIRST TEAMS
Bessborough CC 1st XI 144-7 (36.1 overs)
North London CC 1st XI 141 all out (51.3 overs)
Bessborough won by 3 wickets
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE - SECOND TEAMS
North London CC 2nd XI 59-2 (17 overs)
Bessborough CC 2nd XI 58 all out (25.2 overs)
North London won by 8 wickets
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION TWO
Bessborough 3rd XI 136-9 (42 overs)
Osterley 4th XI 157-all out (49.1 overs)
Winning draw for Bessborough
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION FIVE
Wembley 5th XI 77 all out (27.1 overs)
Bessborough 4th XI 79-7 (26.2 overs)
Bessborough won by 1 wicket
Sunday 10 May 2015
COCKSPUR RUM CLUB TWENTY20
Wembley CC 151-5 (17 overs)
Bessborough CC 149-8 (20 overs)
Wembley won by 5 wickets
Bessborough start with a win
Bessborough marked their return to the Middlesex County Cricket League after three seasons in the Middlesex Championship with a three-wicket win over North London at Headstone Manor on Saturday.
Skipper Rohan Karkhanis won the toss and opted to take to the field and his front line bowlers Sharuban Kanthasamy (0-14) and Vivek Patel (1-19) gave very little away in the opening overs with four maidens out of the first six.
That pressure told and it was Patel who made the breakthrough in the eighth over trapping Sam Bardon (8) lbw with the visitors on 10. Richard Hall (25) and Hussain Shabbir (19) put on 40 for the second wicket but that proved to be the biggest partnership for North London who were ground down by regular wickets for the evergreen Nitin Modha (6-56, pictured), who was ably supported by his (slightly younger) spin twin Karkhanis (3-46). North London closed on 141 from 51.3 overs.
Bessborough’s innings started poorly with returning overseas keeper Jigar Shah (5) unable to immediately rekindle last season’s form, but a string of solid partnerships involving in-form Kushal Patel (77) got the home side close to the winning line before a flurry of middle order wickets late in the game made the result look closer than it was.
The victory means that Bessborough’s first team are now unbeaten in 19 league matches dating back to September 2013. They hope to make it 20 next Saturday when they travel to South Hampstead, victors over Kenton in the first round of MCCL games.
It would be an understatement to say the second XI didn’t fare as well against the same opposition in their opening match. With injuries and unavailability restricting his selection options captain Phil Bush would have expected a tough encounter, but nothing could have prepared him for what followed as Bessborough were blown away for only 58. All-rounder Kibreeth Rameez with 19 was the only batsman to make it to double figures. North London completed the task in 17 overs for the loss of two wickets, picked up by Rameez (1-17) and Gihan Pallage (1-10).
New third team skipper Ian Ridley secured four points from a winning draw in the home match against Osterley 4s as his side look for promotion from the Middlesex 1987 Cricket League Division 2 after last season’s relegation. All of the bowlers played a part in restricting Osterley to 157 with Daniel Malik (3-28) the pick of them.
Bessborough started brightly with opener Nishil Patel scoring 42 but few other batsmen found fluency, while two silly run outs didn’t help the cause, and it was left to Dinal Kadawathage (4 not out) and Peter Doole (0 not out) to see out the last few overs to avoid defeat as Osterley chased the final wicket with Bessborough on 136-9.
The fourth team pulled off a remarkable win away to Wembley with another new captain, Richard Ward, emerging as the heroic match-winner.
With only nine players available the side did a great job covering the gaps in the field and taking most of the chances that came their way to support some excellent bowling from Dipak Chavda (3-9), Prashant Dhayal (3-11), William Gill (3-23) and Bharat Vyas (1-17) that cleaned up Wembley for 77.
Despite a confident knock from opener Sammy Hawes (16) Bessborough were in danger of undoing all their good work in the field as they stumbled to 57-7. The last wicket pair of Ward (24 not out) and Dhayal (1 not out) still needed 20 runs to reach the target but skipper Ward stayed calm and got the job done with some well-timed boundaries. There was one scary moment when Dhayal wandered from his crease but the home umpire deemed him just back in time before the stumps were thrown down. While not his highest personal score for the club, Wardy’s innings was probably the most significant of his Bessborough career considering the context of the low scoring match.
On Sunday, Bessborough’s involvement in all cup competitions was ended for the season with a five-wicket defeat at Wembley in the Cockspur Rum Twenty20 competition. Gihan Pallage (32) and Sherrick Chavda (29) top scored for the Borough in a total of 149, which Wembley overtook in 17 overs.
Bessborough CC 2015 Fantasy League - Week 4 MVPs
- Rohan Karkhanis 121 points
- Nitin Modha 120 points
- Kushal Patel 109 points