Ts draw in the gloom but Cowley shines
Twickenham 4s battled to a deserved
winning draw against Birbeck College at a damp Broom Road on
Saturday August 7th. In a rain-affected game reduced to 77 overs,
BCC scored 199 for 8 from 43 overs and, in reply, the Ts reached
162 for 4 from 34. The game was dominated by a magnificent innings
from Stephen Cowley who hit his maiden senior ton for TCC, scoring
106 (including 16 fours and 2 sixes).
The TCC 4th team that rocked
up at Broom Road contained a mix of youth and experience. At the
Werther’s Original end of the age range were Walder, Walker and
Payne while Cowley, Fordham and David O’Brien gave the team a
soupcon of Fisher-Price. The eleven was fleshed out with skipper
Kriess and 4th team regulars Tomar, Bowman and Shri.
Ben Aldworth, promoted from the 5s, brought enthusiasm in the
field and what appeared to be a rather brutal hangover.
The game started under leaden skies
with the Ts skipper winning the toss and inserting the opposition.
Payne opened proceedings from the River End while Bowman steamed
in from the other. At first BCC openers Kamran and Hashim found
going tough, with the ball hooping about and the outfield slow,
but they gradually began to accumulate runs. Middlesex colt,
Kamran, looked particularly good. Hashim was not to last long,
however, spooning a rank leg-stump long-hop from Payne into the
hands of Shri at square leg. This brought Pardeep to the crease.
He looked to get after the bowling from the off, carving Bowman
through point a couple of times and accumulating quickly. Bowman
soon gained his revenge, though, as Pardeep knocked a decent
delivery straight into Walker’s mitts at mid-off.
It was at this point, with the score on
60-odd for 2 and with 17 overs having been bowled that the heavens
opened and the skippers agreed on an early tea and a period of
rain-watching. The break lasted roughly 90 minutes, after which
with the emergence of the sun and the application of some sawdust
it was deemed that play could resume.
A couple of wickets then came
relatively quickly. Payne had BCC number four Asad caught behind
by the skipper and, finally, due to a sharp piece of work by Shri
at square leg, opener Kamran was run out for a well constructed
41. Birkbeck’s batting became somewhat more agricultural at this
point and runs began to flow more freely. Thus, Kriess decided to
mix up the bowling, introducing Shri at the Road End and giving
O’Brien a go from the River End. Shri was first to strike, with
Alex Fordham taking a super catch in the gully to remove Raz. The
final three wickets to fall belonged to O’Brien, though. As the
Birkbeck middle order, in particular skipper Arshid, mowed the
ball around Broom Road, the young leg-spinner kept his head and
got amongst the poles. He clean bowled Amir, had the
dangerous Arshid caught by Shri for a decent 47 and, finally,
trapped Vaz leg before for 19. The declaration then came, with the
Ts having served up 43 overs and BCC having scored 199 for 8.
With tea having already been served, a
quick turn around brought Ts openers Walder and Cowley to the
crease knowing that they had 34 overs to chase down 200 for the
win or 158 for the winning draw. An early blow was struck by BCC
opening bowler Vaz when he removed Walder with a very decent
in-ducker for 5. Skipper Kriess took to the middle to accompany
Cowley and it was at this point that the young opener began to
take control. Anything full and straight was dispatched back past
the bowler and anything on his pads was pulled viciously. Cowley
dealt largely in boundaries or in 3s when the damp outfield slowed
the ball up. At the other end, Kriess dug in and took the single
when it arrived. When the skipper departed for a nuggety 8, Tomar
came to the middle and took over the supporting role. Cowley was
still booming away, in particular cannoning a couple of très large
sixes over deep mid-wicket. When Tomar departed for 9, undone by a
bit of a shooter from Ali, it was left to Walker to stride to the
middle and help guide the Ts past the winning draw mark. Sadly,
Cowley was not to see it out. Having reached his century to great
applause from the watching Twickenham players, he perished going
for one more big hit on 106. This was a truly wonderful knock,
made all the better by the batsman’s relative youth and by the
conditions in which it was scored. Bravo. It was left to
Walker to bosh a couple of boundaries through cover to gain the
winning draw, ably supported by O’Brien (1*).
All in all, this was an excellent game
of cricket. With 5 more overs, the Ts would have fancied chasing
down 200 given wickets in hand, but a winning draw was a
satisfactory day’s work. BCC played hard and will feel that with a
little more focus in the field, the 4 points might have been
theirs. The TCC fielding was, on the other hand, very good. The
stand out batter in the game was, by a country mile, Stephen
Cowley. BCC’s Kamran and Arshid scored valuable 40s, in rather
different styles, and Phil Walker’s 18* at the end was exactly
what was required in the circumstances. On the bowling front,
O’Brien’s 6-0-46-3 was excellent and, with a little more luck,
could have seen a higher number in the wickets column. Payne was
decent with 16-2-53-2 as was BCC’s opener Vaz (11-0-45-2).
Next week
sees promotion chasing Indian Gym 3s visit Broom Road.