Last ball drama as Uxbridge win thriller

Twickenham    224-6   Eddie Paxton 73, Dan Hough 31, Abrar Dar 4-38

Uxbridge         225-5   Waheed Safi 70, Rob Darvill 62

Uxbridge and Twickenham served up a thrilling finish at Gatting Way as the hosts scrambled two runs off the final ball to seal victory.  Earlier in the afternoon Twickenham has posted a competitive 224 of their allocated 40 overs, with Eddie Paxton (73) in particular continuing his fine late-season form.  Uxbridge were behind the rate for much of their innings, but, crucially, they kept wickets in hand and skipper Abrar Dar managed to scramble 14 off the last over to see his troops over the line.

Twickenham travelled to North-West London with a truly eclectic mix of cricketing talent on show.  Both the 2^nd and 3^rd XI skippers (Hough, Johnson) were on parade, whilst Clint McCabe flew the flag for the Saturday ones.  Richie Brewin, Eddie Paxton and Jon Trippett provided 2^nd team back-up, whilst Nihal Tomar, Sanjay Rawal and Rohan Kulkarni flew the flag for the lower XIs.  Parminda Singh added a touch of Punjabi variety, whilst Kat Dickens made sure that TCC ladies XI weren’t forgotten.  Indeed, the Ts were a classic friendly XI, every base covered …

On winning the toss, Paul Johnson decided that the Ts would have a bat.  Hough and Paxton got things going, with Hough cutting the first ball of the day nicely through the covers for four.  Although the scoring rate wasn’t express, the Ts still moved in to the 50s with only 12 overs gone.  Indeed, Hough (31) was just beginning to up the ante when he clipped a ball on his leg stump straight to Waheed Safi at mid-wicket and with Parminda Singh failing to trouble the scorer (that scorer being Sam Johnson, making his debut), the Ts lost two wickets with the score on 57. 

Nihal Tomar came in at four and settled the ship somewhat.  Three inside out drives fizzed their way through the covers for four, and both batters ran positively, scampering through for a number of quick singles.  Indeed, Paxton cruised passed 50 and Tomar moved nicely into the 20s before another wicket fell, Tomar (30) feathering one behind to give Uxbridge skipper Abrar Dar his first wicket of the day.  Clint McCabe briefly threatened to cause carnage, but Dar removed Sir Horsealot (10) before he could really get into his stride.  Paxton, meanwhile, moved nicely into the 70s.  Neither Paxton nor TCC stalwart Paul Johnson hit the boundary rope too frequently, but the score moved nicely in the direction of 200.  As time ticked away, both Paxton (73) and Johnson (18) fell on their swords, leaving Richie Brewin and Kat Dickens to manufacture what they could out of the last three overs.  With Waheed Safi proving a handful and Abrar Dar (4-38) wobbling the ball around nicely, both batters found it difficult to hit the big runs, but they ran well (including a number of very cheeky singles to the keeper) and generally managed to milk 8/9 an over.  With Dickens driving Dar through the covers for 2 off the last ball the Ts dined happily enough on 224. 

Tea was a relaxed affair.  Rohan Kulkarni gobbled up as many chocolate brownies as he could, whilst more or less everyone enjoyed the Uxbridge trademark, sausage and chips.  Lovin your tekkers.  Indeed, at one point Paul Johnson actually had to remind his side – as the two Uxbridge batsmen loitered around the boundary edge – that there was also a some fielding to be done.  Perhaps it was the tea that prompted Twickenham to take a while to get out of the blocks; Clint McCabe, bowling medium pace, swung the ball considerably – too ‘considerably’, in fact, as poor old Jon Trippett found himself sprawling down the leg side with a view to somehow preventing the ball from zipping off to the boundary.  And, although both McCabe and the unlucky Rohan Kulkarni pouched a wicket apiece, Uxbridge raced to 46-2 off just 6 overs.  Number four Waheed Safi became the destroyer-in-chief, whacking McCabe (who by now had changed ends and had reverted to left arm tweak) for a monstrous six over the sightscreen and hitting both Kulkarni and Parminda Singh hard and straight.  Number three Rob Darvill was rather more conservative, but he also played shots as and when the chance arose.  With Uxbridge on 112-2 off 20, it was game on.

Whilst McCabe (the left arm spin version) and Singh regularly caught the edge and promoted the occasional false shot, neither was able to force a breakthrough.  That was left to skipper Johnson, who had the exuberant Safi (70) well caught by Eddie Paxton at long off.  Indeed, Paxton made a difficult, flat catch look remarkably easy.  When Darvill also went (Sanjay Rawal removing him), it looked like Twickenham were in a good position to strangle the run rate and put the hosts under real pressure.  Indeed Najeeb, batting at five, initially struggled to get the ball off the square, taking 15 balls to get off the mark.  But, once he did get going, he proved capable of hitting the ball cleanly and he kept Uxbridge in the hunt.  Paul Johnson (1-28 off 7) largely kept him at bay, but two big overs saw the visitors enter the last two overs needing 21 to win.  Richie Brewin bowled the penultimate over, and although Najeeb and Wajid Ali swung enthusiastically, they couldn’t get the 2^nd team stopper to the boundary.  With just six balls remaining 14 were required to win.  Skipper Johnson decided to chuck the ball to Dan Hough for the last over, and although the boundaries were not particularly large the smart money was surely on the Ts.  That remained the case even when Najeeb hit the first ball straight for four, but Hough removed him – caught Paxton in the covers – next ball.  With 10 needed off 4 balls 2^nd XI skipper Dar strode to the crease, and he immediately looked like he was going to rise to the challenge.  8 off 3 balls became 6 off 2, and then, crucially, the penultimate ball whizzed narrowly past Paul Johnson’s head at mid-wicket and to the boundary.  2 to win, 1 to tie.  Hough tried to fire the ball in at Dar’s toes, but the Uxbridge skipper nonetheless got the ball out to wide mid off and the batters scampered through for two.

In many ways this was the classic friendly game of cricket.  Everything was done in the right spirit, and the game went down to the wire.  Good stuff.  Next week sees the Ts round off both their Saturday and Sunday seasons with a trip to Kempton (Saturday) and the visit of Sunbury (Sunday).