Saturday 5th July 2008

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Saturday 5th July 2008

1st XI vs. Osterley

Report by: Alan Barnard

After 8 games of the season, and a lot of hard graft, we found ourselves in the impressive position of topping the table of the Middlesex Championship 1st Division, and going into the 9th game against the last 4 season's winners, and second placed Osterley. Things started badly when we lost the toss, and were asked to bat, and they got even worse after we had slumped to 50-3 and 70-4, with Tim Beeden misjudging the length of a straight one, Ravi Pieris getting fantastically caught and bowled and Hussein Shabbir and Alan Barnard getting caught behind for not many. Whilst this was going on, Martin Sanjeev was looking solid at the other end, and with him at the crease, anything was possible.

A brief partnership with Danny Hare saw the score tick on, before the Rabbit was caught behind trying to force one through point, and then Adam Herron looked to move the score along, and was batting quite nicely before holing out in the deep after trying to be too positive. At this stage, it needed a calm head, and Martin was proving to be just that, rotating the strike well with his new partner Wali Khan, and ticking the score along in the process. Martin completed his first century for the club not long after this, and deserved every run of it - it was only after a mix up with Wali that Martin was run out for 122, which could easily have taken the momentum out of our innings just when we were starting to accelerate.

New man in Tony Willett had other ideas though, and set about striking the ball cleanly with Wali to push the score along at almost 12 an over from the last 8 overs to get us up to a formidable, but not unassailable 273-7. In fact, Wali ended up with a mature and patient 45 not out, including some large sixes into the 3rd XI square whilst Willett took 28 of one over, which contained one of the largest sixes I've seen into the Grocers! For the record, the ball was never found, and may well still be travelling east as we speak! Tea was taken, and very nice it was too, with some excellent pasta, and melon to boot.

It was pretty clear that Osterley would be having a go at the 274 they needed for victory, as it's very much in their nature to score quick runs and dominate an innings. We knew that whilst this was a threat, it also provided us with an opportunity to pick up wickets, and this is exactly how things played out, as the run rate was well up towards the 7 an over required for quite some time, but wickets were falling at regular intervals. Wali Khan opened from the top end, and with the wind in his favour bowled some seriously quick stuff to pick up 4 wickets, including a fantastic diving effort from Kevin Lawrence at first slip.

Wills opened from the bottom end, and bowling a more controlled line and length secured 3 wickets, the pick of which being a good caught behind from Adam Herron. The Osterley skipper was in at this stage, and played a sensible innings to consolidate his side's position, not giving many chances, and in the context of the game, it was the right thing to do. Kevin Lawrence was introduced into the attack, and picked up another wicket to make it 8, thanks to a fantastic diving catch at slip from Willett, who was never far from the limelight during this game. Despite one half chance that flashed through slip off Wali, the Osterley batsmen remained solid, and secured draw points for their side.

All in all, it was a game that we might have won; had a couple more chances gone to hand, but given that we were staring down the barrel at 70-4 and 100-5, things could have been much worse, so taking 6 more points from the game than the visitors is no mean feat. What impressed me the most is our never say die attitude with the bat, even low down in the order, where it could have all gone wrong - to get 273 from where we were shows the strength in depth we have. We also bowled and fielded well, and it took some determined batting from Osterley to see out a draw towards the end of the game. All-in-all, a very good performance - we're now half way through the season, and are top of the pile - let's hope we're saying that after 18 games, but there's a lot of cricket to be played before then.

Pieris, Beeden, Martin, Shabbir, Barnard, Hare, Herron, Khan, Willett, Loveday, Lawrence.