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Super Srinjoy Slays Staines
Staines
and Laleham 63 a/o (Srinjoy De 6-12, Junnaid Mehmood 3-27)
Twickenham 66-3 (Srinjoy De 25no, Nitin Parab 22,
Kirk Mullard 2-26)
The Twickenham CC Sunday XI
continued their fine run of recent form on Sunday 15th
July with a comfortable 7 wicket defeat of a below strength Staines
and Laleham outfit. Fine bowling by Junnaid Mehmood, gritty batting
by the in-form Nitin Parab and an excellent all-round display by
Srinjoy De simply blew the opposition away as the Ts maintained
their place at the top of the Thameside Sunday League.
Skipper Dan Hough travelled to Ali
G country with one of the strongest Twickenham Sunday sides this
season. What the Ts didn’t possess, however, was a wicket keeper;
after much discussion in the dressing room, overseas player Pete
Carey volunteered to don the big mittens for what he claimed was the
very first time since his first ever game of cricket at the tender
age of 7. As has become the way with Carey this season, his
performance was very polished, with just one solitary bye against
his name.
The prospects of getting too much
cricket in didn’t look great as the players took to the field, rain,
thunder and lightening threatening in the distance. Staines, having
won the toss, opted to bat first. The Ts opened up with Junnaid (‘Saj’
– although Junnaid bowls a much better length than the big
Lancastrian) Mehmood and the raw, unadulterated, lethal, express
pace of seasonal debutant Kieron Kerr (!). Although Kerr swung the
ball around in the heavy conditions, opening bat Archer nonetheless
took a liking to his bowling and boshed a few early boundaries
through the leg side to get Staines on their way. Mehmood,
meanwhile, took a while to find his length, but once he did he soon
began to make inroads into the Staines top order. Archer (18) was
first to depart, bowled by a beauty, whilst skipper Kirk Mullard
followed first ball thanks to a well taken catch at mid on by the
walking confectionary shop that is Adam Crosby. Crosby treated
himself to a blackcurrant fruit gum as a reward, Mehmood opted for a
polo mint. Smith, batting at four, survived the hat-trick ball, but
it wasn’t long before Mehmood had his third wicket, Edney departing
the scene without troubling the scorers.
By now, wickets were starting to
fall at the other end too, as Srinjoy De replaced the unlucky Kerr.
In a cricketing sense, 2007 has not been particularly kind to De. A
sparking knock at Englefield Green way back in April was followed by
a work trip to Australia and since then the Indian-Australian has
struggled to really get going. It was, however, only a matter of
time before “Doris’s” luck changed; as Staines and Laleham found to
their cost. De began by dismissing Ramdin (7) thanks to a wonderful
catch by Nitin Parab in the gulley. Smith followed, leg before for
4, before Tiv departed thanks to another catch by the nimble-footed
Crosby at mid on. More sweets all round, including to the
despairing but completely undeserving Mark Johnson who’d been
fielding at cover.
De continued to wreak havoc, Lewis
departing for 0 thanks to a delightful change of pace. Ardis and
Davies – batting at 7 and 8 – were then involved in a horrible
mid-wicket mix up, leaving Crosby (that man again) plenty of time to
hurl the ball to Carey who ran out Ardis by a distance. Wylde
didn’t last long at 10 (Srinjoy’s 5th victim, bowled for
0), before Junnaid Mehmood held on to a sharp chance at third slip
to give De his sixth wicket as the innings closed on 63.
Given that the Ts had dismissed
Staines and Laleham inside 18 overs, the skippers opted to take tea
after the game. Crosby and Parab opened up for Twickenham and
despite Crosby (caught behind off the sharp medium pace of Mullard
without scoring) and Jimmy Liebenberg (bowled by Mullard also
without moving off 0) departing early, some positive cricket from
Parab and De saw the Twickenham innings quickly gain momentum.
Mullard nonetheless bowled with plenty of fire and aggression, while
Smith indulged in some rather childish histrionics behind the
stumps. Neither De – who hooked Mullard for a magnificent six – nor
Parab were prepared to be put off by Smith’s verbal threats, as the
Ts score rapidly approached 50. Parab’s departure (22) before
victory was assured was unfortunate, but Eddie Paxton and Srinjoy
(25no) saw the ship home with the minimum of fuss.
All in all this was rather a
strange game of cricket. The Ts bowled well, caught well and batted
well. Staines and Laleham, on the other hand, never really got into
it. The impending threat of a monster thunder storm also kept
everyone on their toes. The loss of two early wickets didn’t
unnerve the Ts batters and once the early pace of Mullard had been
negotiated, the Ts cruised home with plenty to spare. The Ts
continue on their championship trail next week when they take on
Byfleet on the Green.
Dan Hough |
