Saturday Review - Week 7

Saturday proved to be a successful day at the office for the Ts with three wins and two draws out of five. The 1s, 3s and 4s all registered big Ws in the results column, whilst the 2s had the better of a winning draw on the Green. The 5s, meanwhile, are now officially up and running – it might only have been a losing draw, but it wasn’t a defeat! And after six of those things on the bounce, that’s almost as good as a win.

Squeaky bum time for the ones
The firsts travelled just a few short miles across the borough to Lonsdale Road on the banks of the Thames where they played Barnes. And, in a decidedly curious affair, the game didn’t really go as you’d expect. Hot weather, a small ground and a normally flat wicket would generally mean you’d have a run fest on your hands; not this week. Parminder Singh (5-20) and Gurjit Sandhu (3-26) reduced Barnes from 80-2 to 118 all out as the Ts set the game up nicely.

At 36-5, however, Twickenham looked to be making a right royal mess of the chase, Mumtaz Habibullah (3-35) and Richard Alexander (2-23) doing the early damage. Luke Jones, batting at 5, steadied the shop (45 off 55) but his departure when the score was 90 meant that Barnes were very much still in the hunt. The heroes with the ball soon became the heroes with the bat, as Gurjit Sandhu calmed everyone down nicely (31no off 69) before Parminder Singh (18no in 11) blasted two sixes and a boundary to see the visitors home. And all this on a pitch that was pretty much blameless.

Rampal’s Rampage
The bowlers had much less fun on Twickenham Green. Indeed, for the second week running an Osterley side found themselves chasing 300 plus at Twickenham. Opening bat Varad Rampal contributed an imperious 165, a score that the (very) old and (extremely) grizzled grandees on the veranda reckoned was the highest individual league score on the Green in modern times.

Respect due to Rampal, if anything he ran harder and harder as his innings wore on; a top effort in the sweltering conditions. Dan Taylor and Nakul Vishvanth also posted important 40s to help Rampal out and by the time the Osterley chase began they were already very much up against it.

One thing you can nonetheless be sure of is that the Redbacks will give the chase a go. And that they did, cruising to 90 off 15 – a decent base to challenge the Ts’ total. But, slowly but surely wickets fell, Tom Field picking up a couple as did the Knuckle Duster. They didn’t, however, quite fall quickly enough and ultimately Osterley finished around 50 short with a couple of wickets intact. Winning draw for the Ts and Berger’s Boshers remain joint second in the division (see here).

Drama as the Threes go Top
The threes visited Ealing IVs. As was the case in the first XI's game, it soon became clear that neither side had read the script for the day properly. No big scoring here, this was nitty-gritty cricket where every run really did count. The Ts batted first and struggled gamely to 151 off a few balls more than 40 overs. Steve Cowley, proving again that he’s maturing in to a really important member of the 3rd XI side, was the backbone of the innings, contributing 43 with a number of others producing important little cameos.

Ealing started off at a rate of knots in pursuit of 154, and at 75-1 (off next to no overs) they were very much in the box seat. Skipper Steve Watts nonetheless span the wheel, and his mercurial leg spin saw him snare dangerman Rajesh Rao. Ealing began creaking, and excellent spells from Kranthi Alepula and the Earl of Twirl (occasionally known as Anu Agarwal) eventually saw Watts’ Wonders home with 15 runs to spare. A great win that sees the 3s return to the top of the league (see here).

4s on a roll
The 4s really do seem to have turned a corner this season, and they were back at the Green by mid-afternoon having despatched Richmond 5s with the minimum of fuss. Sarwant Singh helped himself to 5 wickets and skipper Hinay Dassani pouched three as Richmond fell well short of three figures. The legend that is James Richards made his seasonal debut, too, although he didn’t actually manage to bat, bowl or even touch the ball in earnest at any point during the day. It’s his very presence that prompts others to achieve greater things.

Batting-wise, Praween Siriwardena hit a steady 26 and although the Ts lost a few wickets on the way, nice contributions from Nitin Parab, Darren O’Grady, Nihal Tomar and Riaz Gul saw the 4s home without too much of an ado.

The 5ths are (sort of) up and running
The big news of the week, however, is that the 5ths are up and running. After 6 defeats on the bounce, they trekked over to Edmonton (to play their 3rds) more in hope than anticipation. Once Edmonton had helped themselves to 258 (from 50 overs – why bat that long and only leave yourself 42 to bowl the oppo out? Answers on a postcard please … ) it did nonetheless seem that the 5ths were once again going to come home empty handed. Special mention to Paddy Turish for his sterling efforts (5-47) with the ball and to Harmeet Singh who also chipped in with a couple of wickets.

But, if you can’t win make sure you don’t lose. And that’s precisely what the 5ths did. Bats were straight and the leave alones majestic. However, with 22 overs to bat the Ts only had two wickets left. Edmonton were odds on to win. They hadn’t, however, reckoned with Chris Tavare (registered under the name of Paul McLoughlin) and Geoffrey Boycott (who for Twickenham’s purposes goes under the pseudonym of Phil Walker) who blocked and blocked and left alone and blocked and blocked and left alone … until Edmonton has basically lost the will to live. The 5ths returned round the North Circ with a bounce in their respective steps. Well done all.