The 3’s produced a backs to the wall performance against league leaders Richmond to secure their first draw of the season at a damp St Mary’s.
On winning the toss,skipper Paul Johnson had little hesitation in inviting the visitors to bat first on a wicket affected by the over rain.
Opening bowlers Pankaj Choudhary and Taufeeq soon extracted some excessive bounce,and openers Whittington and Leibling initially had to dig in.
As the overs ticked by though,both batsmen started to look more comfortable and they pushed the score along at a steady 4 an over.
As is the norm,the introduction of Anurag Dayal temporarily strangled the run rate,with the unlucky Sourav Burman seeing 2 catches go down off his bowling at the other end.
With a fat ‘zero’ still in the wickets column, the scoreboard went past 100,then 150 before Dayal finally enticed Leibling down the wicket to one too many and he was stumped by Lawrence Brown for 55.
Whittington continued to flay away though,and in doing so passed a deserved century.
A couple more quick wickets for Dayal,followed by Paul Johnson finally trapping Whittington LBW for 117 kept a temporary lid on the scoring rate,but some late hitting allowed Richmond to declare on an imposing 256 for 5 off 50 overs.
Anurag Dayal was again the pick of the T’s bowlers with 4 for 53 off 17 overs.
Twickenham’s reply was soon struggling as the out of form Don Campbell was clean bowled by Cole off the 4th ball of the innings for 2. And when no.3 Pankaj Choudhary was caught off a lifter at slip for 10,any chance of a realistic chase began to evaporate.
A procession of wickets followed as Colin Blunden,Anurag Dayal and Paul Johnson all got starts and then got out.
When the resolute Syed Hussein played a loose shot and was bowled,the T’s had slumped to a seemingly hopeless 69 for 6 with fully 24 overs remaining.
What followed was an excellent rear guard action from promoted 4th teamers Ollie George and Matt Freeman, who despite being surrounded by fielders continued to frustrate the visitors with some stoic defending.
When George was stumped for 14,the odds were still stacked in Richmond ’s favour,but firstly Lawrence Brown and then Taufeeq Sheikh showed they were equally up to the task,as the vistors bowling became more ragged.
In the end,Twickenham survived with relative ease finishing on 121 for 8 with Freeman batting excellently to finish unbeaten on 20.
Although not pretty,and being largely outplayed,the T’s can take heart from this result,especially as late drop outs higher up caused the team to be reshuffled on Saturday morning.
Despite still being bottom of the pile,with improved availability next week,and 2 crucial ‘relegation’ games coming up it’s certainly ‘All To Play For!!’