Twickenham – 239 all out
(N.Tomar – 73; S.Khan – 36; Lal – 5 for 75)
Indian Gymkhana – 206 for 8 (Jangra – 57;
S.Nimmakayala – 2 for 42; S.Khan – 2 for 25)
Twickenham’s 4th
XI made the short trip to Boston Manor Playing Fields on Saturday
to take up the challenge of facing Indian Gymkhana’s 3rd
string. Fresh from crushing victory against Birkbeck the previous,
the Ts were looking to continue their run of form and add more
points to the tally and soar further up the table.
Karl Rand did the toss
duties, standing in for skipper Kriess who was making his way from
Heathrow. Mr Rand did a sterling job, losing the toss and being
put into bat. Precisely what skipper Kriess was going to do
anyhow. Young Sam Papworth along with Salman Khan opened the
innings for the Ts and they soon got in their stride to get the Ts
off to a flying start. Sam (11) eventually departed caught. Pity
as he looked really promising. Wilf came in at 3 and also kept up
with the pace of things. Him and Salman started to find the
boundary more often than not, but also kept the good running
between the wickets going. Eventually Wilf (15)holed out, doing a
Donners and finding the fielder, banging a full
bunger straight down the throat of cover. Pity, as he looked good
too! Alistair Quantrill, making his seasonal debut for the 4s,
seemed fresh from a studious time in Aberdeen.
He certainly looked the part, with the bat of course! Not so sure
though about the long locks – a rocker playing cricket, there’s a
thought! He eventually departed with his score on 19, also caught!
Striding in next was stroke maker Nihal Tomar. Nihal took his
time, nudging the singles and feeding Khan with the strike. The
latter moved on swiftly and started bashing the ball to all parts
of the ground. Sadly though, his innings on 36 came to an abrupt
halt – also being caught. Chetan Ubale came in to carry on where
he left off the week before, hit a quick couple of boundaries.
With his score on 19 he was adjudged LBW. Skipper Kriess came in
at 7, not normally where he bats and with 10 overs left decided to
give himself licence to open up. Kriess hit the only 6 of the Ts’s
innings over the cow boundary – must say though it did help that
the wind was blowing in the right direction! Him and Nihal
certainly also looked for the quick sinlges and the good running
continued when Nihal started pushing for 3s. Skipper Kriess though
slowed him down as he couldn’t keep up with the pace of the young
athlete. Nihal reached his now well-deserved half century
and carried on in bashful fashion. Eventually though he
succumbed to a straight one and was bowled with his tally on 73.
Certainly the mainstay of the Ts innings. Ummar Khan (13), Alex
Fordham (0), Bowman (2) and Shirkanth (3*) all made
their contributions and see out the 50 overs. The Ts finished
their innings on a very respectable 239 all out.
Teas were had downstairs, as the opposition
skipper called it. This basically meant outside on the field where
all the cars were parked. He certainly seemed extremely organised
in this department of the game. The blue trays were laid out nice
and neatly and decrypted perfectly advising the consumer (just in
case they couldn’t see what they were actually eating or didn’t
know) whether it was veg or non-veg. Add to that a thermos with
ready-made tea and loads of water to survive the hot day and just
had the almost perfect picnic actually. My compliments to Indian
Gym’s skipper – top effort Vijay!
The Ts then commenced the
defence of their total, a winning total in everyone’s eyes, with
the fielders being chirpy and the bowling being accurate. The Ts
certainly put the pressure on right from the word go, with Wilf
fielding at a silly mid-on position and very
much using his huge presence to intimidate the
openers. Wilf was also his very usually
thinking self, assisting skipper Kriess with his field.
Lefthander opener Singh only had one thing on his mind –
throw the bat. He had limited success as the Ts opening bowlers
Shrikanth and Ummar kept a tidy line and length and gave little
away. Ummar’s pace was also giving the the other opener, also
Singh , a lot of trouble. Shrikanth struck first, bowling the
right-handed Singh. Ummar (11-0-60-1) soon followed his opening
partner, bowling the left-handed Singh. However
both seemed to tire and were replaced by Khan and Ubale
respectively. In the field the Ts looked sharp and really backed
each other up. Khan sgot his first wicket with his first ball of
the day, a full bunger being hit straight to the mid-on fielder
Ummar. They soon combined again in Khan’s 4th over,
again a similar delivery also being hit to mid-on. The second
catch however, was made to look harder as Ummar really had to move
quickly and dive forward holding on well to the ball – very much
to the skipper’s delight!
Indian Gym certainly were
slow in getting the runs and so it was decided to try and at least
go for the killer blow. Wilf and his skipper chatted about the
prospect of trying to also defend a possible winning, calculating
that that target was at 182 for the opposition. More to that
later!
Next to strike was Chetan
Ubale, who bowled a steady line and length and was moving the ball
both ways. His variety in the deliveries certainly perplexed No.5
Bangu and the impatience showed as he lofted his shot into the
hands of Rand fielding at short-midwicket. As
Indian Gym moved ever so closer to that winning draw total of 182,
Kriess started to rotate. Bowman bowling down the hill having
replaced Khan (5-0-25-2) bowled very tidely. He got the wicket of
Sohail, well caught by Nihal in the covers. Rand (3-0-17-1),
replacing Ubale (9-2-38-1) turned his arm and got success with
good work behind the stumps from Papworth. As the opposition
finally reached their “target” of the winning draw the skipper
brought back Shrikanth hoping that he could take the remaining 3
wickets. He succeeded with one but the other 2 held firm with
Indian Gym ending their inning on 206/8 after their minimum
allotted 42 overs.
Once off the pitch and
having shook hands with the oppo, the skipper Kriess was
approached by Wilf confirming that the winning draw target was
indeed 201 and not 182 as previously calculated. So it turned out
that the winning draw was snatched from our grasp by only a few
short runs. One can only say one lives and learns in situations
like that. It was a good competitive game, with banter on it and
good spirit off it and I for one will certainly be looking forward
to the return fixture. All in all a promising performance with the
bat by the Ts with almost everyone contributing and in the
fielding department (apart 2 dropped catches by the skipper and 1
by Wilf) everyone was chirpy and backed each other up – solid team
spirit which is great to see!!
Looking forward now the Ts
host Brondesbury next Saturday and I’m sure this will be a very
good opportunity to get another victory and 10 points in the bag.
See you Saturday!
Holger Kriess
4th Team
Skipper