Paull, Scriven and Cassidy keep their heads to see TCC into round 2 of the ECB National Knockout

Twickenham                218-7               (W. Paull 62, A. Barnes 33, J-P Cronje 27, Gorav 2-39)

British Airways                        189 a/o           (Imran 37, Wali 29, J. Scriven 3-30)

Twickenham moved smoothly into the second round of Cockspur Cup with a 29 run triumph against British Airways.  Solid batting from the Twickenham top order, and Warwick Paull in particular, helped the Ts post 218 off their allotted 45 overs.  British Airways, as is their way, boshed and bashed with vigour, but the Concord Club outfit were always fractionally off the pace, eventually closing on 189 all out.   

Fresh from a narrow victory the day before against Kew, the Ts went into club cricket’s flagship cup competition in good spirits.  Carlos Nunes’s men assembled on time, got off to BA’s Hounslow ground (more or less) punctually and were changed and ready to go for around 12h15.  The stretches, the fielding drills, the slip catching practice and finally the throw downs all went off without any hitches.  The Ts were ready to roll.  As were the umpires.  But, er, with no tangible sign of an opposition the scheduled 13h start clearly wasn’t going to happen.  A search party was sent out to look for them.  Finally, after much head-scratching, a BA representative appeared and claimed that it was a 2pm start.  Neither the Ts nor the umpires thoughts so, and BA were told to get their act together and sort themselves out as quickly as possible. 

By 13h30 BA had assembled enough players to get going – albeit without the 30 yard circle or any idea of how to get the scoreboard up and running.  No matter, play began, and JP Cronje and the returning Andy Barnes strode out to get the show on the road.  Although a sticky day, Nunes had, on winning the toss, decided that runs on the board were better than battling with the mind games of a run chase, and he subsequently had no hesitation in batting first. 

Cronje and Barnes took their time.  Younis, bowling from the airport end, swung the ball considerably and his whippy action forced a few balls through slightly quicker than both openers might have anticipated.  There were, however, still enough bad balls to get the score up and moving.  Barnes elegantly helped himself to a couple of boundaries as well as a six off Wali, before Cronje joined the party, dispatching Rashid over his head into the tennis courts. 

The passing of the fifty mark (in the 12^th over) was marked by a series of bizarre events in the field.  BA’s failure to provide discs for the fielding circle didn’t, of course, extinguish the rule about placing no more than two fielders outside the circle in the first few overs from the law book.  And the umpires, trying their best to be decent chaps about this, kept advising BA that some of their ‘ring fielders’ were remarkably ‘deep’.  Add to this the fact that BA’s understanding of ‘close catching positions’ (two fielders needed to be in these) was a decidedly liberal one (cover is not a ‘close catching position’, sorry) led to yet more discussions between BA fielders, the umpires and, increasingly, the Ts’ Carlos Nunes. 

Once all this silly bizarreness was put to one side (basically after the 15^th over), attention turned back to the cricket.  Gorav made the first breakthrough as Kartik neatly stumped Cronje for 27 (41 balls), whilst Barnes was run out (33 off 50 balls) with the score on 66.  A bit of consolidation was required.  Carlos Nunes’s understanding of ‘consolidation’ nonetheless includes being brutal on anything even remotely over pitched or short, and it wasn’t long before he moved nicely into his stride with a couple of big sixes.  The Ts’ skipper’s knock was unfortunately a little short and sweet for the taste of onlooking neutrals, as he departed to a top edge for 24. 

Paull and Justin Scriven ensured that the tempo continued to bubble along nicely, Paull cruising towards the 50 mark with some elegant shots.  As ever, when in full flow Twickenham’s ‘Mr Cricket’ can make batting look very easy, hitting the ball all around the wicket with ease.  Indeed, the elegant South African looks to be running into excellent form with the league season just around the corner.  Very sharp running between the wickets saw the Ts move within sight of the 200 mark and the departure of Paull for 62 (94 balls) and Scriven (for a very thoughtful 14 off 30 balls) left Dimitri Nicolaides the opportunity to fire off a quickfire 26 (25 balls) before being unluckily run out in the penultimate over. 

The final over was not without entertainment; Martin Fisher (n.b. many thanks to Martin’s mother for paying his tea money, much appreciated), making his seasonal debut, was pinned first ball with a chest high beamer from Younis.  Once he’d recovered, he eeked out a single to leave Dan Hough on strike.  Younis managed to get his radar back in range, bowling Hough next ball with a tasty yorker – only for Colin Downey, the square leg umpire, to call no ball as only three men were in the non-existent circle.  BA’s indignation prompted a decidedly unsporting attempt to then claim that Hough had also been run out as, again, madness appeared to descend on the Concord Club.  As and when sanity returned, the Ts managed a couple more runs to reach 218 before Younis had his revenge, dismissing the Proud Salopian off the very last ball of the innings. 

Tea then followed.  Now, Twickenham may well have been spoilt in recent years as teas on the Green are genuinely a joy to behold.  However, no one is demanding the opposition provide sushi, prawn crackers, pizzas or fruit salad (all of which were on offer the day before in the match versus Kew).  That is indeed a little beyond the call of duty.  The BA effort on Sunday was, however, minimalist to say the least.  Throw in a price tag of £45 and unfortunately we have the lowest recorded score on the Tea-o-meter ever; a D-.  ‘Could do better’ definitely the conclusion here …

As and when the cricket began again Imran quickly showed that he had played the game before.  Some nice straight hits were coupled with sharp running between the wickets as the BA innings began to take shape.  Gorav, the other opener, didn’t look quite as at home, and it wasn’t too long before the Ts eeked out wicket number 1; Justin Scriven taking a sharp caught and bowled to remove Gorav for 6.  Shahid Khan came in at three.  He had an early scare when Paul Cassidy prompted a thick edge behind that keeper Matt Bendelow, standing up, couldn’t quite cling on to, but it quickly became apparent that his aggressive stroke-making was going to offer up further chances.  And, sure enough, it wasn’t long before JP Cronje snuffled a(nother) caught and bowled to remove him for 26.   

The arrival of Sulaiman at four to partner Imran offered BA the best chance of overhauling Twickenham’s total.  Both players could hit the bad ball (hard), and were also savvy enough to know when to rein the shot making in.  It was therefore of vital importance to the Ts that the partnership was broken quickly.  And, as has often been the case in recent times, JP Cronje did the trick, trapping Imran leg before for 37.  The BA opener wasn’t happy, but he had to go. 

While Imran had accumulated runs in an assured and composed manner, the rest of the middle order opted for a more rugged approach.  The ball was either to be whacked (as far as humanly possible) or not whacked (and therefore played defensively).  The BA middle order subsequently lived (and died) by their swords.  Shelly, at five, didn’t last long, caught behind off Warwick Paull but Asif (at six) wielded the long handle to quite some effect.  It was to Twickenham’s relief that Andy Barnes held on to a smart catch in the gulley off the returning Justin Scriven to remove the left hander for 22.  Nasir (at seven) came and went quickly, Paul Cassidy joining forces with Barnes (again) to claim his first wicket of the day. 

Wali – batting at eight – was the very epitome of the BA batting strategy.  Whack it or block it.  He launched Carlos Nunes for two huge sixes of which the Ts skipper himself would’ve been proud and it became clear that he could do serious damage if this was allowed to continue for too long.  Cassidy, however, had other ideas and his excellent second spell did much to see the Ts to victory.  Wali took him on, only to pick out Warwick Paull in the deep and ‘The Huss’ looked as cool as ice in taking a steepling catch. 

Rashid, at nine, came and went without troubling the scorers, leaving Khan at ten to accompany Sulaman who had been watching the fun and games from the other end.  As the run rate crept over a run a ball BA started to feel the pressure.  Yet, singles were turned down and the running between the wickets became tentative.  Sulaman tried to hit his way out of trouble, hacking uncharacteristically at the first three balls of Justin Scriven’s last over until, almost inevitably, the big South African yorked him for a well-crafted 31.  Last man Younis hung around, but it was clear that if BA were going to pull off a miraculous victory number ten Khan would have to do it.  He boshed Cassidy for a nice four over his head, but the end was nigh and skipper Nunes finished proceedings by bowling Khan for 11.

This was an efficient and effective Ts performance.  Batting wasn’t easy and 218 always looked competitive.  BA gave the chase a good go and the result was only certain when the ninth wicket fell.  The Ts Sunday league side will be in action next week with national knockout second round tie – against Uxbridge – on May 18^th.