Match Report

Saturday 27 June 2009, at Cavendish Sports Ground, Field End Road, Eastcote - Won by 3 wickets (Ref. 200910)

The onset of light rain with 13 overs remaining and the loss of three late wickets was not enough to prevent a successful run chase by Wealdstone Corinthians after they had needed to rely on a declaration from Priory Park to set the target of 189 from 37 overs. Both sides lost three relatively early wickets, then recovered with two significant partnerships involving their top scorer. For Priory Park it was Mehul Dave with a classy unbeaten 72 who rescued them from 60-4, adding 50 with Stef Radajewski and being well supported by Paul Sinclair in an unbroken 6th wicket stand of 78. Then for Corinthians Jameel Shah powered his maiden fifty from only 39 balls, and featured in two partnerships of over 70 with Andy Clark and Akshay Samarth, who also produced his career best score for the home side. Skipper Steve Brown hit the winning boundary with 4 overs to spare after rescinding a wide that would have done it. Fortunately for him there was no repeat of the 2002 Thongsbridge debacle the last time this type of Corinthian spirit was shown, where three wickets went for no runs and a tie was snatched from the jaws of victory!

Priory Park 188-5 dec (40 overs), J Shah 2-34, A Samarth 1-32, Rohan Meswani 1-47, Mehul 72*

On a sticky day Priory Park chose to bat first and made such a sticky start against Steve Brown and Akshay Samarth that their score was 1 for 1 after 6 overs. In the second over Amit was bowled by Akshay, and the new ball bowlers maintained the pressure sharing 13 overs for 28 runs. They were replaced by Jameel Shah, whose pace tested the club's first female wicketkeeper in Joanne Windsor, and Rohan Meswani. Both had an early success, when Chirag was bowled by Jameel and Manish by Rohan in the next over to make it 42-3. In the 23rd over it became 60-4 when Rahul was also bowled by Jameel. There was no further success for the bowlers, and although there were three confident run out appeals only the one against Stef was given, when Andy Clark ensured his brother wouldn't concede a risky second run. The Priory Park batsmen looked totally at home (funny, that!), adding 81 in the last 10 overs before the declaration.

Corinthians 192-7 (32.5 overs), J Shah 81 (63 balls), A Samarth 41* (54 balls), Raj Meswani 21 (21 balls), A Clark 18 (30 balls)

For once Corinthians lost an early wicket when Andy Naylor cover drove Hitesh for 4 in the 3rd over but was caught off a top edge next ball. Raj Meswani responded by hitting Shyamu for three boundaries in the following over and 6 more runs in the bowler's next to make it 28-1. The 7th over was a mini-disaster as Narendra Shah was needlessly run out and Raj gave Hitesh a difficult return catch, which he held. Unfazed by this, Jameel Shah hit Shyamu for 4 and 6 over mid wicket in the next over to hit him out of the attack, then did the same to Hitesh when his last two overs cost 10 and 21. The latter included four boundaries, one of which was a 6 and another a wide. Stef and Mehul shared 7 overs and slowed the scoring rate slightly, but the partnership was worth 72 from 9 overs by the time it was broken by Andy Lee. He had Clark caught on the long on boundary in his first over, though had no further success in 4 overs. The target from the last 20 overs was 83 runs, and the 11 fours from Jameel to add to his two early sixes ensured Corinthians were within 12 of that when he was finally bowled by Parm. His lightning innings was in keeping with the weather conditions after tea, though the worst of the rain eluded Cavendish. This allowed Akshay Samarth to build his best innings to date, and a 4 off eighth bowler Chirag took the score past 180 in the 30th over. Parm then had Chris Clark caught behind for a duck and Rohan stumped for 2, a potentially nervous 184-7, but another 4 from Akshay off Chirag levelled the scores and the skipper did the rest.