On Sunday 23rd July Twickenham hosted Brentham last of the MDL group fixtures. On a day where heavy rain was forecast, the home side did all they could to ensure a game could be played as a quarter final place was on the line. Brentham won the toss and inserted the Ts, looking no doubt to bowl them out for a low score.

Twickenham were immediately on the back foot as they lost their openers early on. The score was 5-2 and the pressure was on Sanjit Sandhu and Sim Mangat to build the innings as the senior players. However the number 5 batsman, Muhammed Ahmed, was forced to make an early entrance into the game with Sandhu cutting the ball to backward point.

The away side had all the momentum at this point and were looking to continue to force their way through Twickenham’s middle order, but the batsman at the crease did not let that happen.

Mangat and Ahmad played simple cricket; leaving anything outside off stump, driving anything too full, flicking anything too straight, and pulling anything too short. Although this partnership was not the highest of the innings, they showed the rest of the batsmen how easy it was to bat on that wicket.

The two batsmen got themselves out against the run of play bringing two new men to the crease, Varad Rampal and Robbie Bosier. The score was 55-5 and the two played with intent to ensure the run rate didn’t drop. They didn't, however, do anything reckless. They both departed one after the other leaving the score 114-7 off 25 overs (having scored 32 and 22 respectively), Luke Jeffreys and Shreeraj Chauhan now the new men in the middle.

Chauhan looked to take the lead in the partnership after flicking a full ball on his feet for 4 runs, but Luke Jeffreys also looked composed out in the middle and the two ran well between the wickets to frustrate the bowlers.

Jeffreys, however, was bowled on 8 and Chauhan missed a straight half volley, looking to smash it for six, to be bowled for 15. Ozzie Qavi and Dom Thamby were the final partnership as the score was 143-9 and number 10 and 11 did a great job for the team as they added and extra 22 runs to leave Twickenham 165 all out off 38.4 overs.

This meant that Brentham needed 166 runs off 41 overs to win the match and knock the Ts out of the competition. They had a blistering start as they found the boundary many times early on. The opening bowlers struggled to find their lines and many wides were given, giving the visitors extra runs to help them on their way to chasing the total.

The score was 32-0 off 4 overs and it looked like Brentham would easily score 166 with about 10 overs to spare. However, inspirational speeches from the skipper and from Robbie Bosier reminded us that last week we were in a position where we looked like we would chase a low total easily but we still ended up losing. This proved to be the catalyst for change, Dom Thamby dismissed their number 1 batsman who was looking in ominous form thanks to a great catch from the cool-headed Muhammed Ahmad and Ozzie Qavi dismissed their other opener by beating him with his pace and sending the bails flying by.

Sim Mangat was brought into the attack and was consistent at getting the batsman on the front foot driving. He was rewarded with 2 wickets including a great caught and bowled diving catch. When the skipper came into the attack the score was 47-4 off 11 overs and by now the home side were on top and not looking to give anything away.

Nomula looked in great touch with the ball in his hand and mixed up the pace of his deliveries. He got Twickenham into the tail by outdoing Brentham’s middle order batsman with his googlies and faster balls, and he was helped by his left-arm spinner Chauhan, who also got a wicket by nicking their number 6 batsman off. Brentham were now reeling on 100-8 off 31 overs.

The ball was in the skipper’s hands. Nomula already had three wickets and had his eyes on his 1st 5fer for the club. He went on to get the 2 further wickets he needed in consecutive balls to win the match for his team and send Twickenham through to the next stage of the competition.

It was a tremendous fightback from the Ts, both with bat and ball. We were put in uncomfortable positions throughout the game but we fought back in every situation to end up coming out on top. This week we were led by example thanks to a great bowling performance by our captain and the team is growing closer as unit with every game we play together.

The future is looking bright for this MDL side and we will look to go on and win the shield trophy with our very well rounded squad. The next stop on our road to the trophy is Wycombe House on the 6th of August, we will look to even better this performance and will be inspired by the rivalry between the teams to win that match.

By Shreeraj Chauhan