Bessborough Cricket Club News story


U15s through to MCA Finals Day

08 Aug 2015

U15s THROUGH TO MCA FINALS DAY
By Simon Heaney, Raj Kanagaraj

A great all-round team performance saw Bessborough’s Under 15s beat Ealing in their MCA County League U15 knock-out quarter-final last night by 18 runs, which sees them progress to the Finals Day at the end of August.

Skipper Vidoosha Jayawardena won the toss and elected to bat first on a very sunny evening with the wicket dry and flat. He and fellow opener Sujan Sivakumar made a good start by putting on 26 runs in the first five overs, before Vidoosha (8) bottom edged onto the stumps from a short ball from county bowler Tom Sheen.

Sujan and Beavan Fernando added another 26 to take the score to 52 before Beavan was caught for 9. Rebant Ruparel was unlucky to get out for 1 after a top edge to another county bowler Rafique Ossman. Jamie Young (12) then joined Sujan and put on a very useful partnership before Sujan got out for a valuable 32.

Retesh Jesuthasan and Stefaan Fernando then added further to the tally as Retesh top scored with 33, while Steefan ended with a rapid 21 not out from 15 balls. 

Bessborough finished their innings on 133 for 6 wickets in 20 overs, setting Ealing a difficult rate of 6.7 runs per over. Sujan made the first inroad when he trapped Ossman lbw for 5 and some excellent bowling and fielding meant that the home side needed 30 runs from the last two overs with six wickets in hand.

Vidoosha enstrusted the task to the Sivakumar twins (one of three sets of brothers in the team) and they rewarded his faith with Sujan only giving away 8 runs with his pace bowling in the penultimate over, while the very talented spinner Ajan took two wickets and conceded only 3 runs in the last over to complete the memorable victory.

Bessborough's bowling figures were:
Ajan Sivakumar 4-0-13-3
Sujan Sivakumar 4-0-26-2
Thanuka Jayawardena 4-0-25-1
Vidoosha Jayawardena 4-0-31-0
Stefaan Fernando 4-0-18-0

Team manager and Bessborough colts chairman Raj Kanagaraj described the win as one of the best colts matches that he has managed in recent memory, adding that nine of the boys in the U15 squad have also played senior cricket for Bessborough, something that has helped them greatly to develop their cricketing skills and techniques.

Following this win the U15s have qualified for the Finals Day on Sunday 30th August at North Middlesex CC, 185a Park Road, London N8 8JJ.  More details will follow soon.

The other quarter finals still to be played by 23 August are:
Richmond vs Sunbury
Finchley vs Eastcote
Osterley vs Old Merchant Taylors

Bessborough will meet the winners of the Richmond vs Sunbury in the semi-finals. Winners of the Finchley vs Eastcote and Osterley vs OMT games will contest the other semi-final.
 
Bessborough U15 Squad:
Vidoosha Jayawardena (Captain), Sujan Sivakumar, Beavan Fernando, Rebant Ruparel, Jamie Young, Retesh Jeysuthasan, Stefaan Fernando, Thanuka Jayawardena, Sameer Aggarwal, Ajan Sivakumar, Hammad Rathore, Devan Patel, Raj Kanagaraj (Team Manager), Aruna Jayawardena (Assistant Team Manager), Vernon Senanayake (Coach), Ravi Vyas (Coaching Assistant).