Thou shall not pass!
If you can’t win, make sure you don’t lose. At one point late on Sunday afternoon that very much became the motto for Twickenham’s 3s as they found themselves under the kosh against a strong Highgate side. Twickenham were 100-6 chasing 277 and thoughts of chasing down the total had to be put well and truly on the backburner (see here for the card). The aim was to bat time; and Kan Uppal and Steve Watts rose to the challenge admirably.

If there is one man in the club who relishes the challenge of digging in, then it’s Steve Watts. Throw in the fact that Watts was playing his former club and the scene was well and truly set. Watts was armed for battle.

Oxfordshire’s finest did, however, need someone to bat with. Rob Rigby (51 off 37 balls) had shown plenty of early intent driving with panache whilst speeding to a 34 ball half-century. But, Rigby was part of a four wicket cluster to fall for 16 runs as the Ts drifted alarmingly from 84-2 to 100-6.

The man to step into the Chris Tavare role alongside Watts was Kan Uppal. Uppal’s instinct is to play shots and indeed a few shots he did indeed play. A couple of imperious cover drives came out of the locker and the late cut also made a number of appearances. But, Uppal wisely saved those for the bad balls that came his way. Everything else was treated with the utmost caution.

Impressive Highgate batting
Before the game got to that point Highgate had very much controlled proceedings. Skipper George Potter put in a proper opener’s knock in compiling 98 (120 balls). He took his time, watched others make hay and will probably be kicking himself that he feathered the tireless Dom Thamby behind with a century in his grasp.

Highgate batted very nicely around Potter and at one stage a score north of 300 was on the cards. Dan Russell contributed a 30 ball 44 from number 5 whilst Jon Cummings hit a nice 36 (47 balls) before being impressively run out by Rob Rigby; Rigby threw down the stumps from 20 yards to leave Cummings a fair distance from safety. Respect due.

Bowling-wise, it was something of a mixed bag for Twickenham. For much of the innings runs came far too easily, but Rigby’s Chinamen did at least rein things in a bit as he (2-35) grabbed a couple of wickets. It was nonetheless Thamby and Ali Jennings who really deserve the plaudits; they bowled the last 10 overs between them and even after two and a half hours in the field they showed great discipline to keep Highgate somewhat in check. 277 is a lot of runs. Had Jennings and Thamby not bowled so well at the end it could easily have been well north of 300.

Painful end for Uppal
In reply Dan Hough hit a couple of nice boundaries before falling leg before to the trusty old warhorse that is Steve Blyghton. Connor Finney (17 off 35) looked largely untroubled before being bowled by Adarsh Vani. Once Mo Ahmad and Ali Jennings came and went in quick succession it was left to Watts and Uppal to man the lifeboats.

Uppal (40no off 82) helped himself to 8 boundaries along the way, Watts (17no off 85) found the rope just the twice. But, that didn’t matter. The impressive spin attack of Vani, Jay Shah and Rehan Naqvi did all they could but Watts was not to be moved. The only sour note came in the very last over when, with the losing draw all but secured, Uppal took a nasty blow to the face from a lively Dan Tattersall bouncer. Uppal departed the scene in an ambulance but, thankfully, a few stitches and a couple of weeks looking like he’s done a few rounds with Tyson Fury are likely to be the end product. Nothing more serious than that.

The winning draw puts Highgate in 7th place while the Ts remain in 9th (see here for the table). A win or two at some point soon really wouldn’t go amiss….