Thriller on the Green as Twickenham and NL take it right down to the wire

North London 228 a/o   Duncan Fleming 83, Anu Agarwal 5-58, Stu Amos 4-46

Twickenham    220-9    Richie Brewin 62, Dave Brady 43, Nathan McKenzie 4-62

Twickenham and North London produced a real cliffhanger of an encounter on Twickenham Green on Saturday 26^th June.  In game that had ebbed and flowed all day the home side recovered from 63-6 to come within a hair’s breadth of pulling off an unlikely victory.  NL’s Duncan Fleming set the tone, batting nicely for 83, whilst Richie Brewin (62), Dave Brady (43) and Jawid Dardarkar (41) batted beautifully when the pressure was on the Ts.  Bowling-wise the Ts’ spin twins (Stu Amos and Anu Agarwal) claimed nine wickets between them, whilst NL’s Nathan McKenzie was well worth his 4-62.  Ultimately neither side will be happy with 4 points (in NL’s case) or 1 point (in Twickenham’s) but in such a tight and well fought game it is also just as true to say that neither deserved to lose

Once or twice a year you read in match reports that going in to the last over of the day “all three results” were possible.  Well, with 6 balls left in Saturday’s Middlesex Championship encounter both sides could quite not only have ‘won’, ‘lost’ or ‘drawn’, there was also the very real possibility of tie and even a ‘we really don’t know as the rules don’t cater for such an ending’.  Entertaining stuff!

To summarise proceedings up until then.  North London’s 228 had been built on the rock solid foundation of 83 from Duncan Fleming, with Ben Wakeford (44) and Oly Greally (22) chipping in nicely too.  Given the motorway of a track and grease lightening-like outfield, 228 was by no means an insurmountable target, and the Ts started their chase in confident mood.  Debutant Sati Singh Dhaliwal batted elegantly for 28, but he soon became part of an unseemly collapse, as Nathan McKenzie picked up three wickets and the Ts slithered to a decidedly precarious 63-6. 

Any thoughts of winning from there were put very much on the back burner, as Richie Brewin and Jawid Dardarkar tried to stop the rot.  Once they’d had a look at what was going on, they began to express themselves a little, Brewin cutting the evergreen Amjad Zahoor elegantly for a succession of fours through the covers.  Dadarkar, as is his way, ran like the wind and drove with real power, as the Ts got up past the 100 mark. 

100 soon became 150 as Brewin began to assert his authority and the scoring rate increased.  Indeed, the Ts’ keeper-batsman was looking a class above, punching the ball through the covers and pulling with venom.  The chase was indeed on.  Even the dismissal of Dardarkar couldn’t dampen the renewed sense of optimism, as Dave Brady joined the party.  Brady has not been in the best of nick of late, but, perhaps buoyed by the super catch he’d taken on the boundary earlier in the day, he started boshing the ball far and wide.  Again, hopes were rising, and not even Brewin’s departure for 62 could dampen them.

 Brady and the cool, calm and collected Stuy Amos did their best to keep up with the rate as 40 needed (with 2 wickets left) with 4 to go, became 30 off 3 and then 24 off 12 balls.  By the time the last over was upon everyone, the Ts needed 15 – and with Brady in positive mood anything was possible.  Indeed, if the sides had ended up scores level and Twickenham weren’t all out then we’d have had a really peculiar situation; it wouldn’t have been a tie as the home side had at least one wicket in hand.  But neither side would have been able to claim a winning draw as their run rates would’ve been identical.  With Dan Hough and the onlooking Twickenham players speedily trying to decipher the minutiae of the Middlesex Championship handbook it soon became clear that the league hadn’t actually considered such a scenario – so no one had any idea what the points allocation would have been!  Best just to get on with it and see what fate brings us. 

Brady immediately raised Twickenham hopes by slapping Olly Greally’s first ball for four.  Brady and Amos then scampered two to leave Twickenham needing 9 off 4 balls.  Those watching in the pavilion really were on the edge of their seats.  Greally trotted in to bowl the third ball and Brady again whacked it – only this time to the 6ft 6 Shropshire Lad, Simon Moore, at long on.  Moore’s training at the finest cricketing academy in the Midlands, Reman Services CC, ensured that there was virtually zero chance that he’d drop it.  And he didn’t.  Brady was gone for a swashbuckling and hugely entertaining 43. 

Attention then turned to Stuy Amos as the batters had crossed.  Would Twickenham’s last pair go for it, or would Amos and Paul Cassidy settle for one point and a draw?  Amos was no doubt sorely tempted, but with the field right back the former skipper opted to settle for a (very) honourable draw.

This game had pretty much everything.  Great catches, unbelievable dropped catches (stand up Ashley Gray), good batting, good bowling and a real nail-biting finish.  If only every game of cricket could be like this …