The 2007
league season begun on Saturday for the Twickenham 2nds in what
proved to be a frustrating game. The performance had moments of
excellence but too many moments of poor cricket cost the T's from
taking the full 30 points. If a concerted effort is to be made in
the league, Twickenham will need to be more ruthless and show
a greater ability to capitalise when opportunities arise.
Osterley won the toss and had no hesitation to stick Twickenham in.
The sunshine of previous weeks had vanished and a cloudy, blustery
day greeted Storey and Paxton as they strode to the middle. The
Osterley boys were loud and enthusiastic during the early stages and
their opening bowlers were consistently nagging, offering little to
hit. The first two overs were maidens but with each over that passed
the batsmen began to find their feet. Paxton had found the rope four
times before being adjudged lbw for 17. This was no more than
Amrinder had deserved as he'd bowled with plenty of verve. Despite
Paxton's departure the scoreboard was looking solid at 40-1 from 10
overs. Jimmy Liebenberg, making his league debut for the T's, came
in at three and immediately showed his class, blasting a square
drive for four. As the rain fell his innings was cut short when he
attempted a pull shot off Mandip, only to offer a straight forward
catch to the wicketkeeper. Jimmy walked off with everyone following
close behind as the rain held up play for forty minutes. Upon
restarting the game Dave Barton showed his quality with a flurry of
explosive drives and cuts. Storey also found some form but the
introduction of spinners Perera and Shak made life increasingly
difficult. Storey was soon bowled for 40 by a Shak quicker ball with
the score just short of 100. While Barton continued to play
sensibly, keeping out the many good deliveries and putting away the
occasional loose one, the rest of the Twickenham batting order
struggled to come to terms with the spinning ball. No one else got
to double figures and the innings was most reliant on Barton's
excellent 56. His fine knock was eventually ended by Shak who picked
him up caught at long off. The experienced middle order of Hawley,
Victory and Johnson failed to make their mark and the tail enders
were unable to see the innings through to the expected 55 overs.
Much praise should be given to Shak (4-50) and Perera
(2-43) who each bowled 17 overs and kept the pressure on throughout.
There were no freebies served up and it was always difficult for new
batsmen to get themselves going. A final total of 180 all out was at
least thirty runs short of where we should have been. At 98-2 with
33 overs still to bat, a far more imposing total had looked on the
cards.
A magnificent tea was thoroughly enjoyed by all and Twickenham took
to the field hoping for early wickets to get some pressure on the
Osterley batsmen. Paul Cassidy did the business for Twickenham,
getting rid of the fidgety Buttar for nought. The opening
batsman attempted to take the initiative by hitting Cassidy over the
top, only to find the finest mid off in Middlesex, Mr Paul Johnson.
Things got worse for the visitors when the the number three played
an ambitious pull off a short Ryan Combrinck delivery, but succeeded
in picking out Chris Marshall at mid on. The new cherry was
certainly travelling and Marshy did extremely well to cling on at
the second attempt. Two wickets down with only nine on the board,
Twickenham were well in the box seat. Another wicket at this stage
and Osterley would have been in deep trouble. However, Mirza and the
number four batsman Sajjad batted with great skill and maintained
the confidence to play their shots. Anything short or wide was
punished and the scoreboard continued to rattle round. Important
opportunities were missed in the deep and it was beginning to look
as though Osterley might canter to an easy victory. But two quick
wickets fell to Leibenberg and Johnson and the game was once again
back in the balance. Both bowlers found a consistent length and
batting was suddenly not looking so easy. Even the previously fluent
Sajjad went into his shell. Leibenberg was extremely impressive and
was given great support by James Jordan who was standing up to the
stumps. Johnson took the pace off the ball and any attacking shots
off his bowling were high risk. When Johnson took his second wicket
it looked as though the vast majority of the final 70 runs needed
for victory would have to come from the blade of Sajjad. The number
seven Wakeer looked like no sort of batsman at all but appearances
were deceiving as he promptly smashed a quick fire 43 to take
Osterley to the brink. Although he never looked convincing he struck
a number of sixes and took the game away from Twickenham. He was
eventually bowled by golden arm Johnson. With only ten needed Johno
then picked up two wickets in two balls to give Twickenham a glimmer
of hope and himself a well deserved five wicket haul. Sadly it
wasn't to be for the T's and quite appropriately it was Sajjad who
struck the winning runs. His was an excellent innings of 60 not out
and a definite match winner.
While Osterley celebrated Twickenham were left to consider what
might have been. A further twenty or thirty runs or one or two fewer
mistakes in the field and the result may have been quite different.
In future weeks it will be important to cut out such errors. Great
credit to Dave Barton, Jimmy Leibenberg, James Jordan and Paul
Johnson, all of whom performed extremely well and very nearly took
Twickenham to the win. |
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