Twickenham's underperforming 2nd xi nearly
reached new heights of underperforming on Saturday, but in the end
managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat at home to
British Airways.
It started brightly for the T's though, as after
winning his first toss of the season, skipper Alex Storey had no
hesitation in inserting BA,and it looked to have paid early
dividends when Ryan Combrinck cleaned bowled opener Rehman with
the score on 7.There then followed a period of consolidation from
the visiting batsmen, as the placid nature of the track came
through, allowing them to take the score past 60 without further
loss. Paul Cassidy, who had bowled very tightly without any
return, was replaced by Ben Parer's part time off spin, with the
sole intention of buying a wicket. This again paid an instant
dividend, as the other opener Faisal made a hash of a leg side
full toss offering a simple catch to Jimmy Liebenberg at short
fine leg.
This brought the hard hitting Malik to the
crease, who punished anything wayward. He was helped by some poor
outfielding by Twickenham, including dropped catches and numerous
missed run out chances.
Parer got his 2nd victim, removing the classy
Ali for 39.But by this stage BA were edging past 150,with only 3
wickets down, and eyeing a score of circa 250.
Liebenberg, who'd bowled 14 excellent overs,
again without any return, was replaced by Paul Johnson. And it
wasn't long before wickets started to fall. First to go was
skipper Danish, top edging a pull shot to wicket keeper James
Jordan off Johnson. Then dangerman Malik was cleaned bowled 'Warnesque'
style by skipper Storey. The rest of the order put up some
resistance, but it was in the penultimate over that the vistors
were finally dismissed for 219.
Of the bowlers, Johnson finished with 3/39,Parer
2/60,with Combrinck, Liebenberg and Storey taking a wicket each.
With arguably their strongest batting line up of
the season, Twickenham were confident of chasing the total down,
but openers Aly Vokes and Ben Parer struggled to time the ball on
the slowish wicket. Parer was first to go, edging one behind for
10,followed by Vokes, cleaned bowled for 15.
This brought together skipper Al Storey and Dave
Barton, who both started to give the innings much needed impetus.
Barton played some trademark heavy blows, but it was Storey who
proceeded to offer what can only be described as a 'batting
masterclass', with some sublime shots all round the wicket. When
Barton tried one big shot too many, and was clean bowled for
27,T's were well set at 91 for 3 with 25 overs to go.
What followed was basically inexplicable, as
Storey watched helpless, as partner after partner
failed to support him, basic errors
causing their downfalls, while he continued to make it look easy
at the other end. Twickenham's middle and lower order was blown
away, mainly by Iqbal's accurate but hardly threatening medium
pace, and defeat looked a certainty at 150 for 9 with fully 10
overs remaining.It was perhaps ironic that number 11 Cassidy
showed how badly his 9 other teamates had batted, by having no
trouble surviving the remaining overs, taking T's to a
disappointing 167 for 9 at the close, with Storey finishing on a
superb 75 not out, in arguably his best innings for the club. A
true 'captains knock'
As stated at the start, this team is seriously
underperforming at the moment. This needs to be rectified very
soon, or else they'll be looking at the wrong end of the table.
