Twickenham come off
second best in lively encounter at SKLP
SKLP
224-6 (55 overs)Prakash Halai 91no, Ashish Patel 65, Paul Cassidy
3-33
Twickenham 171 a/o (43.3 overs)
Tom Guy 57. Paul Pannell 53, Prakash Halai 5-29
Twickenham self-destructed in a lively
encounter at SKLP on 24th July. The Ts dropped
catches galore and batted poorly, whilst SKLP kept their nerve and
deservedly pouched the 10 points. Prakash Halai certainly
had a day to remember, hitting an undefeated 91 and sweeping the
hosts to victory with an impressive 5-29 at the death. For
the Ts, Paul Cassidy bowled well for 3-33 off 14, whilst Tom Guy
(57) and Paul Pannell (53) did their best with the bat;
ultimately, however, the better team won and the Ts will have to
re-group quickly for their must win encounter with Osterley next
week.
None of the Ts players had ever played
at SKLP’s Northolt-based ground before, and they were pleasantly
surprised at what they found when they got there; SKLP may be a
relatively new club, but they have clearly made decent progress in
recent years. There was even a hairdryer plugged to the wall
in the visitors’ dressing room, something only seen at Acton’s
Park Club ground thus far! Indeed, later on in the day it
transpired that the hosts had generously granted the visitors what
used to be the home side’s changing facilities as the showers were
better there; a decent gesture, fair play.
On winning the toss (that’s three weeks
in a row now for Dan Hough after a long barren spell beforehand)
Hough had little hesitation in opting to bowl. The track was
wet, but with the sun shining and wind blowing it was likely to
dry out quickly. Batting, so the theory went, was likely to
get easier as the day went on. And, the first few overs
certainly bore this out. Paul Cassidy began with four
maidens as the ball spat and jumped alarmingly, and, with SKLP on
6-2, it looked like it was a great toss to win. However,
SKLP’s response just goes to show that even when conditions are
against you – and make no mistake about it, the hosts had much the
worse of them on the day – if you battle on and persevere then you
can still come out on top. Keeper-opener Ashish Patel was
the perfect example of this; he rode his luck a little early on
(being dropped at point in the first over of the day) but he hit
the ball cleanly and, for the most part, pretty straight.
His 65 was well-crafted and well-deserved.
With number four Kamil Pandolia
becoming the third man to depart to Cassidy without scoring, Patel
was in danger of running out of partners until Prakash Halai
joined him at the crease. Prakash showed admirable
stickability, blocking where necessary and hitting hard when the
opportunity arose. Hough subsequently rang the bowling
changes; Mikey O’Brien struggled to make headway on a pitch that
was more or less the completely the opposite of the type he’d like
to bowl on, whilst Garth Borain’s did his best to hit the seam in
his five over spell from the Heathrow end. With neither
posting anything in the wickets column, Hough turned to the trusty
spin twins to try and make further inroads. And, Agarwal and
Amos might well have done so had the Ts not suddenly suffered a
collective attack of the catching collywobbles. Previously
safe pairs of hands kept spilling chance after chance, as both
batters passed 50 and batting began to get easier.
Indeed, Ashish can perhaps count
himself a little unlucky to have been adjudged caught behind for
65; his innings was a good effort, and it set the base for a final
total of 224 off 55. Prakash, meanwhile, may well have rode
his luck a bit, but he can’t be blamed for that and his 91no
ensured that Twickenham had a testing target to chase in just 45
overs.
The tea was a highly enjoyable affair;
nice Malayan chips (I think that’s what they were called, anyway!)
plus a good salad mix were greeted with positive noises from the
visiting Ts players, whilst the swiss roles and fruit finished
things off nicely. And all served by the players outside the
pavilion. Very nice, a definite A on the Hendo-tea-o-meter –
not a grade given lightly, one might add, as last week’s Sunday
match report at Indian Gymkhana revealed!
The Ts reply got off to the worst
possible start when skipper Hough was removed off the final ball
of the first over, Rickesh Vekaria bowling the skipper with a
little away swinger. Tom Guy and Paul Pannell (at three)
nonetheless did a very good job of resurrecting things for the
visitors; both took their time and were watchful when they needed
to be, but they ran well between the wickets and kept the score
ticking. In due course Guy became more adventurous, dancing
down the pitch to hit Sachin Halai over his head and getting out
the Dilshanesque reverse scoop to Nayur Arjan. Pannell was
more orthodox, but both reached 50s in decent enough time (Guy’s
in 78 balls, Pannell in 82).
At 107-1 the Ts looked all set to
launch an onslaught on the total. Although only 18 overs
were left, 118 did not look out of reach with 9 wickets in hand.
However, SKLP skipper Muks Halai cannily set the field back and
throttled the boundaries. The Ts ran well, but slowly the
rate went up and the batters found themselves taking more and more
risks; both Guy (57 in 86 balls) and number four Garth Borain (9)
succumbed in the deep to good catches by Kamil Pindolia, and Matty
Bendelow was outfoxed by what appeared to be a real jaffer by
Nayur. The Ts were on the slide. SKLP were fielding
well and, most importantly, catching the chances when they came,
and ultimately this may well have been the key difference between
the sides.
Whilst wickets were tumbling, Richie
Brewin nonetheless played another fine knock in the middle order.
Brewin’s really come of age in 2010, and whilst he was at the
wicket the Ts were in with a chance of gaining the winning draw.
Brewin ran well, timed the ball nicely and generally was a beacon
of sensibleness in a sea of carnage. Mike O’Brien perished
to Rakash, whilst Anu Agarwal fell on his sword and became
Pindola’s third catch in the deep. When Pindola himself had
Brewin caught behind (30 off 35 balls) the Ts were in free fall.
Stuy Amos and Paul Cassidy did their best to see the Ts through to
at least a winning draw, but, with 10 balls left, Prakash fizzed
one passed Cassidy to bowl him and send the SKLP players into
raptures.
Ultimately, the Ts can have no
complaints. The better side won, and ‘Scorebook-gate’ (the
less said about that particular episode the better) should not
deflect from the fact that when the heat was on the Ts weren’t up
to the task. However, Twickenham live to fight another day –
and 10 points against high-flying Osterley and the Ts will be back
in the promotion hunt.