Twickenham’s second string continued their bright start to 2020 with a breezy eight wicket triumph at North Middlesex. Dom Thamby (3-16) made early inroads into the hosts’ top order, before Ali Jennings (2-27) and particularly Blake van der Linde (4-26) came impressively came to the party. The Ts’ made short work of chasing down 88, evergreen opening pair of Dan Hough (26no) and Jonty Hunt (22) doing most of the work before a quickfire 18 from skipper Eugene Berger saw the Ts all but home. Olli George finished things off by clonking a six to get the visitors over the line.

Different Paths
The Ts have started the season promisingly. With Covid 19 doing its best to mess up everything on the cricketing front, Eugene Berger was unsure as to exactly how competitive his side was going to be in 2020. Two wins and a rained off game into the season and it looks like the answer is (at worst) ‘reasonably’.

North Middlesex, meanwhile, seem to be struggling a bit. The Midd have established themselves as one of Middlesex’s strongest clubs, but this season their twos are yet to register a positive result. It’s early days and things can certainly change, but 2020 looks like it might be one of their tougher campaigns of recent times.

Good leaves and bad leaves
The Ts certainly hit the ground running on Saturday. The Midlands’ Maestro, Dave Jones (1-7 off 5), and the enigmatic Dom Thamby (3-16 off 5) soon reduced the hosts to 5-3. Jones was the beneficiary of the first of two excellent slip catches from Blake van der Linde whilst Thamby was getting the ball to angle in nicely. Indeed, Adam Holmes thought that he had ample room to leave another Thamby inducker only to hear the dreaded death rattle. There are, as they say, only good leaves and bad leaves. No prizes for guessing which category that one fell into.

Tommy Ricketts and Louis Hayward threatened to engineer something of a revival, putting on 30 for the 6th wicket, but 15 year old Ali Jennings joined the wicket-taking party as Blake van der Linde took a(nother) high quality catch in the slips. Van der Linde himself then entered the bowling fray, sweeping away the last four wickets to claim 4-26. 88 all out.

Bombastic Berger
Chasing small totals can sometimes be a bit trickier than it looks. Those of an older vintage will remember Australia failing to chase 129 at Headingley in 1981 and then 150 at Edgbaston just a couple of weeks later. Cricket is often played as much in the head as it is out on the field.

Berger was conscious of that and subsequently made sure his batting line up had the requisite amount of stodge mixed in with some free flowing stroke players. At the top of the order Dan Hough and Jonty Hunt certainly offered plenty of stickability, and both eased their way forward with little fuss. Hunt wheeled out the on drive on a couple of occasions whilst Hough drove neatly through the covers and nudged and nurdled effectively. All was set fair.

Luke Kenna nonetheless removed Hunt (leg before) with the score on 37, but Berger soon ensured that any worries of disastrous collapses would be put to bed. Four balls into the skipper’s innings and he was on 18 (4, 4, 6 and 4) and one player on the neighbouring pitch was lucky to have avoided decapitation as Berger smashed a full ball over cover for a maximum.

Berger was nonetheless there for a good time rather than a long time, and he departed almost as soon as he arrived. Gabe Basden claimed the scalp. The burst in the scoring rate effectively meant that the game was nonetheless all but up although there was still time for Oli George to come in and end the game with another six. All done and dusted.

Osterley on the horizon
The twos are in a pretty good place. Berger has a good squad of players to choose from and they find themselves joint top of the table. Struggling Osterley come to the Green next week, offering an opportunity to continue what could be a largely unexpected title drive.

Photo; @jedleicesterphoto