WEEKEND REVIEW - JUNE 20
By Simon Heaney, James Wheeler & Rohan Karkhanis
Saturday 20 June 2015
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE - FIRST TEAMS
Bessborough CC 1st XI 218 all out (46.5 overs)
Harrow Town CC 1st XI 218 all out (43 overs)
Match tied
MIDDLESEX COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION THREE - SECOND TEAMS
Wycombe House CC 2nd XI 216-8 dec (49 overs)
Bessborough CC 2nd XI 153-9 (48 overs)
Winning draw for Wycombe House
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION TWO
Bessborough CC 3rd XI 306-4 dec (40 overs)
Finchely CC 4th XI 107 all out (35.2 overs)
Bessborough won by 199 runs
MIDDLESEX 1987 CRICKET LEAGUE DIVISION FIVE
Turnham Green & Polytechnic CC 4th XI 182 all out (42 overs)
Bessborough CC 4th XI 184-2 (34.3 overs)
Bessborough won by 8 wickets
Last ball drama as “KP” wicket ties match
A classic match was played out at Headstone Manor on Saturday as Bessborough came back from the brink of defeat to tie their Middlesex County Cricket League in a rain affected game against Harrow Town thanks to a last-ball wicket by Sharuban “KP” Kanthasamy.
Having been put in by the opposition Bessborough’s inning got off to a terrible start as Jigar Shah (1) was out lbw in the first over of the day to a half-tracker that kept low and Rishi Patel (5) followed soon after to leave the side on 14-2 after eight overs.
Opener Ishan Shah (52) and number four Ian Barrie (73) rebuilt the innings by adding 127 for the third wicket and despite a flurry of wickets a sixth-wicket stand of 46 between Hemmen Jutla (43) and Sherrick Chavda (21) helped to get the side into a seemingly strong position of 217-6. But once again the tail not so much failed to wag as was cut off completely and thrown in the bin as the last four wickets fell with only one extra run being added to the total.
Bessborough’s new ball pair Neal Patel (4-53) and Kanthasamy (3-51) picked up two early wickets but thereafter the Harrow Town batsmen slowly grabbed control of the game with overseas player Rushak Jaleel (91) expertly guiding operations at number three. When the sides came off for rain after 20 overs in the second innings, with the scores at 103-3, it seemed unlikely that the game would continue handing a winning draw to Harrow Town. However, the clouds cleared and the game continued having lost 10 overs of play, leaving Harrow Town to get the remaining 116 runs off 23 overs.
Rohan Karkhanis (3-57) stemmed the flow of runs somewhat by grabbing three quick wickets soon after the game restarted, however a 69-run seventh-wicket partnership meant Harrow Town needed just 14 runs off the last four overs for victory. But the reintroduction of the opening pace duo of Patel and Kanthasamy (pictured) proved to be a masterstroke by skipper Karkhanis.
First up, in the 40th over Patel cleaned up Gishan Herath (26) and only conceded three runs. KP repeated the trick in the next over when number nine Kamlesh Desai (1) tried to crunch a length ball over cover but only found a scampering Rishi Patel at mid-on, who took an excellent catch in front of a full pavilion, and again only three runs were added. Patel then claimed the vital wicket of Jaleel, and as importantly only conceded a couple of runs.
The two runs from that over meant that Harrow Town needed six runs from the last six balls and that all results were still possible. Number 10 Ankit Patel (3 not out) started the over with a single that put last man Faizan Kazi (4) on strike. KP then produced a dot ball but with the next delivery Kazi found the boundary to level the scores. Two dot-ball yorkers kept the game alive and the nerves on edge but KP, in his debut season for the 1s, showed remarkable cool to come up with the same delivery and this time break Kazi’s defences and uproot the middle stump to tie an incredible game.
The five points moves the 1s into seventh place and they will look for further progress next Saturday away to sixth-placed Kenton.
That result topped a pretty good week for the club as all of the sides remained unbeaten, bucking a disappointing string of results in recent weeks.
The second eleven are now bottom of their MCCL league despite a heroic last-wicket stand of 32 between Mitesh Vyas (24 not out) and Rohan Desai (7 not out) that salvaged a losing draw away to Wycombe House.
The home side declared on 216-8 after 49 overs with Wasi top scoring on 105. The pick of the Bessborough bowlers were Desai (2-19) and Kibreeth Rameez (2-32).
In reply, Bessborough were in a spot of bother at 2-15 but captain Phil Bush (38) and Rameez (17) put on 52 for the third wicket to keep the side in the chase. It wasn’t to be however, as apart from a breezy knock of 20 by Vivek Patel the away side’s batting collapsed with the next six wickets falling for 54 runs, leaving Vyas and Desai to face 13 overs. Fortunately the pair did their part and held on to claim a point from the losing draw.
A victory for the improving Harrow Town against South Hampstead means that Bessborough drop into the relegation spot, three points adrift of Harrow. The 2s have a chance to catch up with the mid-table pack when they entertain Ickenham at Headstone Manor next Saturday.
An almost perfect performance saw the third eleven clinched their first win in the Middlesex 1987 Cricket League since mid-May as they crushed Finchley by 199 runs at Headstone Manor.
The star of the show was James Wheeler (pictured) who scored a career best 159 not out to lead the third eleven to 306-4 off 40 overs. Wheeler has now scored 355 runs in his last four innings for the 3s with scores of 123, 65, 8 and 159*.
Apart from losing the toss and being asked to bat, almost everything else went right for captain Ian Ridley. The run rate from the first ball was excellent as Rajan Modha and Vidoosha Jayawardena adopted a positive approach to the Finchley bowling. However, steady bowling from Finchley dismissed the in-form pair of Modha (15) and Richard Edmands (2) in quick succession, leaving the side 47-2 in the eighth over.
Wheeler joined Jayawardena at the crease and the pair put on 72 in 12 overs. Jayawardena once again looked in excellent touch as he eased to his second 50 of the season. His driving of anything over pitched was a joy to watch and it was a real shock when he was dismissed for 68 by the excellent wrist spin of Bharadia.
Wheeler was then joined by his captain Ian Ridley and it was the former who really started to take the attack to Finchley. There were very few dot balls in their partnership of 64 in nine overs as Wheeler reached his third 50 of the season without breaking sweat. With the side well set Wheeler looked to destroy the Finchley attack and he was particularly savage on the opposition spinners by finding the boundary at will with his sweeps and drives.
Ridley (13) was dismissed with the score on 184 but the onslaught continued as Wheeler found a budding ally in Vinay Bhudia. Bhudia batted sensibly and got Wheeler on strike as he reached his fourth senior century. The pair put on 120 in the final 12 overs as they reached mammoth 304 allowing Ridley to declare after 40 overs. Wheeler hit the ball at will as he scored 100 runs in the final 15 overs to finish on a career best of 159 not out, while Bhudia was also unbeaten on 27.
With runs on the board, Ridley opened the bowling with his vice-captain Sahil Hathi (1-17) who picked up the first wicket clean bowling Hammerton for 8. The young Finchley batting line-up was soon 2-down as Steve Kimsey (1-12) removed Fazli (2) but they then rallied against an excellent Bessborough attack.
With rain beginning to fall it was vital to bowl as many overs as possible, the spin twins of Nandesh Patel (4-30) and Thanuka Jayawardena (2-17) were both brought into the attack and gave the Finchley batsman all sorts of problems. With the rain now starting to get heavier, Patel picked up a wicket off the final ball before play was suspended as he had Powe caught by Modha at mid-wicket.
After a 15 minute delay the match restarted and wickets tumbled due to the combination of some excellent bowling backed up by some good fielding as Finchley were finally bowled out for 107 giving the 3s a big 199-run victory.
Next week the third XI travel to Richmond as they look for back-to-back wins for the first time since July 2013.
The 4th team produced one of their most complete all-round performances in their short history with a resounding eight-wicket win away to Turnham Green & Polytechnic.
Ravi Vyas (2-27) got things started with a wicket in the first over, removing opener Simon Mellor (0) thanks to a neat catch at first slip by his dad Bharat. Ravi followed that up with another soon after, this time bowling Het Parikh for 6.
TG&P then consolidated as opener Michael Redfern (27) chanced his luck with some wafts outside off-stump but he finally succumbed to a beautiful in-swinger from Aadil Raja (1-30) that splayed the stumps. Daniel Malik then caught and bowled Praveen Ambhir (31) while Shyam Lakhani made the big breakthrough bowling the dangerous Ramki Sankaranaraya (31) when it looked like he might go on to make a much bigger score.
Bharat Vyas (2-26) and Jamie Young (2-27) helped to clean up the tail as TG&P were dismissed for 182 from 42 overs. Aside from a few dropped catches the Bessborough side could be very pleased with their work.
After a great tea Bessborough openers Simon Heaney and Praekash Balendra set about getting close to the target. Heaney was exceptionally lucky to stay at the crease as TG&P fielders put down some very regulation - bordering on comically easy - chances while he was still in single figures. Fortunately, he made them pay as the pair put on 114 for the first wicket before the previously chanceless Balendra was bowled by Alpesh Patel (1-26) for 33.
Having reached his half-century in somewhat fortunate style Heaney then displayed more poise after a short rain break to quickly pile on the runs before finally falling to a yorker from Jonathan Alvares (1-18), finishing on a personal-best score of 90 with the side needing only 10 to win. Dinal Kadawathage (37 not out) and Richard Willson (6 not out) saw out the task with minimum fuss to claim the 10 points.
Records tumbled for the Barbarians last Thursday as they secured an excellent 50 run win over Northwood Town at Headstone Manor. The win ended a run of four successive defeats and was largely built around an excellent batting display which saw the Barbarians post a record score of 197-4 off their 20 overs.
Star of the show was Rajan Modha who’s 104 is the first ever hundred scored by a Barbarians batsman. Twenty-year-old Modha struck a six in the final over to bring up his milestone and score his third hundred for the club since August last year. Tharshan Kanagaraj (34) and Sahil Hathi (25) both batted sensibly in support of Modha as the Barbarians scored a very competitive total.
In response the Northwood Town openers started with a bang attacking the Barbarians new ball attack of Sharuban Kanthasamy (0-33) and Steve Kimsey (0-31).
With the ball flying around off the seam bowlers, captain James Wheeler introduced spinners Nandesh Patel (3-20) and Dipak Chavda (3-19) with the pair both picking up wickets in their first over. The spin twins squeezed the life out of Northwood Town’s response and the pair both ended up with three wickets apiece. Medium pacers Ian Ridley (1-20) and Ravi Vyas (2-18) finished the game off with some tight bowling as the Barbarians triumphed by 50 runs.
This week the Barbarians take on Bushey on Wednesday evening at Headstone Manor.
Bessborough CC 2015 Fantasy League - Week 10 MVPs
- James Wheeler 219 points
- Rajan Modha 169 points
- Nandesh Patel 130 points