The batting blues hit as Twickenham are trounced by Birkbeck College

Birkbeck College                     228-6 (50 overs)

Twickenham                          83 a/o (33.4 overs)

Top of the table Birkbeck College cruised to an emphatic 145 run victory against an out of sorts Twickenham on 3^rd July.  Sati Singh Dhaliwal and Anu Agarwal did their best to keep the Birkbeck batting in check, and 228 was by no means a massive score.  But the Ts’ normally reliable batting line up never looked remotely likely to chase the total down, the only highlight being a breezy 31 from Jawid Dadarkar. 

Let’s start with the positives.  Firstly, the scones with jam AND cream that were served up for tea were divine.  In fact, had Phil Walker from the fourths been playing I think it may well have been impossible to drag him (as one of the Ts’ numerous tea aficionados) out of the tea room for the second innings.  The jam wasn’t the cheap and nasty Tesco’s value sort either, it was – so we were informed – home made, as indeed were the scones themselves.  Result.  And your author is still regretting only helping himself to three of them.

Secondly, none of the Twickenham players’ possessions were (as far as we are aware) nicked, vandalised or wrecked whilst the Ts were at Birkbeck’s ground.  Given that a car had apparently been stolen from the London Marathon Sports Ground the week before, the Ts ability to depart with everything they brought with them is a clearly another plus point. 

Thirdly, it is nice to know that no matter how badly the Ts play, we still have a hard core of loyal supporters who are prepared to travel to Middlesex’s furthest corners to lend their support.  Well, the ‘hard core’ is actually Corinna Dadarkar; fair play Corinna, we appreciated the effort, although I think you might need to work on playing (loosely defined) that vuvuzela!

Finally, on the field there were a couple of things of note that happened too; Sati Singh Dhaliwal bowled superbly, and largely without luck, from the A40 end.  His figures of 16 overs (and the last 16 overs of the innings from that end, too), 2-40 were exceptional and all of the Birkbeck batters found him a real handful.  Even the impressive skipper Zahir Ali (73) found his zooters, offies, googlies and the like tough to work out.  Anu Agarwal bowled better than his figures might lead one to believe, whilst the Ts’ catching was more or less where it should be.  Ryan Combrinck also got some real schbang out of the pitch, causing all the top order to jump around a bit.  His 2 wickets were very well deserved. 

On the batting side, the plus points are harder to find.  83 all out is bad enough, but Birkbeck also put down at least 3 chances that in truth they probably should have taken, and the Ts batters produced a litany of ill-conceived shots.  Sure, Garth Borain was (very) unlucky with one caught behind decision, but that can’t disguise the hari-kari that too many people seemed intent on committing.  Birkbeck’s overseas (Lovekesh) bowled well (5-23), but probably not quite as well as his figures might make one think.  When batters keep playing iffy shots, life does get much easier for the bowlers. 

All in all this was a frustrating day.  On the fielding and bowling side, the Ts didn’t get a great deal wrong.  All the Birkbeck batters can play (although the opener – who boshed Steve Kruger over the pavilion for two sixes in the first over of the day – would probably fit better in to MTSSC’s side rather than Birkbeck’s) and 228 was a decent effort all round.  But a batting unit that had previously only been bowled out once all season (in week 1 against Wembley) can do so much better.  And that’s precisely what the plan will be next week in the first of the return fixtures (at the aforementioned Wembley).