Match Report

Saturday 11 July 2009, at Cavendish Sports Ground, Field End Road, Eastcote - Won by 98 runs (Ref. 200914)

Two superb catches from "Stretch" Brosnan inspired 10-man Wealdstone Corinthians to victory against a youthful Ickenham side before the early evening rain could end the match prematurely. Openers Raj Meswani and Andy Naylor again built a solid platform for a good score with an opening stand of 75 in 13 overs, and the declaration was made when the 6th wicket partnership of 51 between Akshay Samarth and Chris Brosnan was broken. That left Ickenham 46 overs to attack the target or survive, 7 more than the home side had received. Once the opening pair had been separated with a diving catch wickets fell regularly, and only skipper Andy Evans made more than 10. The match ended surreally with two wickets in consecutive balls from Dharmik Shah, who dismissed Ganesh palpably LBW then saw last man Will Hampshire shoulder arms to a ball that came back from outside off stump to hit it. To be bowled after leaving the ball is embarrassing enough at any time, but to do it first ball and to lose a match is trebly so!

Corinthians 196-6 dec (39 overs), Raj Meswani 45 (44 balls), A Naylor 43 (86 balls), A Samarth 26 (36 balls), C Brosnan 22* (27 balls), Extras 38, Soni 3-50

The second cancellation of the season by NPL Teddington allowed Corinthians the chance to meet local side Ickenham for the first time since 1992. The visitors planned to bat first upon winning the toss, but as the home side only had 7 players present Ickenham allowed them to bat in preference to lending them fielders. Andy Naylor got off the mark with a single and Raj Meswani with a four through mid wicket, and this pattern continued as it has most of the season. Meswani struck three consecutive boundaries in the 3rd over to make it 27-0, and the contrasting styles of the pair have brought them an average opening stand of 44, more than double the figure achieved by openers in 2008. With Raj hitting Hampshire's last three balls for 4,2,4 he looked favourite to reach his first 50 of the season, but played on in leg spinner Soni's first over. Bob Hyacinth drove two exquisite off side fours before top edging Soni to cover, to make it 94-2 after just 17 overs. In his longest innings of the season Chris Brown provided solid support to Naylor, who started to accelerate after the luxury of batting at his own pace with Raj, and the pair added 38 in 11 overs. Both were dismissed by Ganesh, Naylor hoicking to mid on and Brown LBW, in between which Andy Clark struck a blistering boundary off Soni only to change his mind mid-shot and be caught at extra cover next ball. Akshay Samarth soon got off the mark with a four and hit each bowler for another boundary, whilst Chris Brosnan took a little longer to get going. He eventually joined Akshay in the 20s and brought up the 50 partnership with his third leg side boundary off Ganesh in quick succession, only to see Steve Brown declare when Akshay was bowled by young Daniel Pope next ball.

Ickenham IV 98 (30.4 overs), Rohan Meswani 4-14, D Shah 3-36, A Samarth 2-20, S Brown 1-16

If a settled opening pair has helped the batting line-up the same can be said of the bowling, with Steve Brown and Akshay Samarth again applying good pressure. Pal cut the first ball of the innings for 4 but Brown followed up with three maidens. Soon after Pal hit his first boundary off Samarth the promising opener tried to pull him on the leg side, only to top edge a few yards towards the bowler. Normally this would have dropped safely, but Chris Brosnan rushed in from cover, stretched well and dived onto the pitch to hold a stunning one-handed catch. In the next over Brown yorked Pope, the other opener, and Corinthians were on their way. Dharmik Shah replaced Brown after 6 overs and in his first drifted a slower ball in to bowl Stapleton and make the score 40-3. Evans was batting well and took a boundary off Akshay and two more off Dharmik, before possibly being unlucky to be given out. He came forward to a ball from Akshay that was hitting middle and off, but appeared to play no shot and was LBW for 25. Rohan Meswani entered the attack for 6 overs at the Pavilion End, and only his first and third were wicketless. Firstly Guy Toynton drove powerfully towards short cover, where Brosnan held a brilliant reflex catch knee-high, then the same combination induced a simple catch from Pandey. It was 78-6 and still 20 overs remained. Evans junior and Soni were both bowled, the former to a defensive shot that spun back off the bottom of the bat. Then came that double strike from Dharmik that neatly meant each bowler had taken as many wickets as his number in the bowling order, and each Ickenham batsman had been dismissed in ascending numerical order (with only Scannell at number 7 surviving).