Match Report

Saturday 08 August 2009, at Cavendish Sports Ground, Field End Road, Eastcote - Won by 3 wickets (Ref. 200920)

Debuts: Amol Shah, Darpit Shah

Wise use of their resources enabled a depleted Wealdstone Corinthians side to register their tenth win in thirteen matches against a club that had inflicted a heavy defeat on them during that run. The home side opted to field first on a Cavendish greentop, and used the new ball effectively to take three early wickets. They chipped away at a handy batting line-up to leave a target of 130 in 43 overs, with Dharmik Shah hitting the stumps three times and Bob Hyacinth inducing three catches with gentle outswing. Raj Meswani and Andy Naylor again provided a solid start with their fourth 50 opening partnership of the season, and although Mike Goodchild took four wickets in his second spell, and his son two, Mayfield could not quite force their second close finish of the month. Three vociferous LBW appeals were turned down, to the visitors' consternation, and it would have been very interesting to see where Hawkeye would have directed the moral high ground on these decisions.

Mayfield 129 (38 overs), D Shah 4-27, B Hyacinth 3-11, A Samarth 2-37, S Brown 1-12, S Patel 28

Steve Brown and Akshay Samarth both started with a maiden, and although Akshay dropped short and was hit for three fours by Swann he made the breakthrough in the 8th over. Jones was deceived by a slower ball and pushed a simple return catch to the bowler. In the next over Swann played across the line and was bowled by a Brown inswinger, and it was 29-3 in the next when Charlie Goodchild looped a catch towards second slip, where Dharmik Shah held a catch that Bob Hyacinth could also have taken. Dharmik entered the attack and stayed on for the rest of the innings, returning his best figures of the season. His first wicket was rather fortunate, Bowdon adjudged LBW playing forward, though to be fair he had earlier survived a seemingly more likely shout. Skipper for the day Steve Copus hit Akshay for three fours in an over, but then lost his off stump to Dharmik, who then removed Patel the same way with a slower ball. It was good to see the return of Pete Basham, who had been out with a broken thumb since being hit by a full toss at Cavendish a year before, and with the help of top scorer Samit Patel the score reached 113. Chris Clark replaced Akshay at the Pavilion End and began with 3 accurate overs, but suffered from slight over-pitching and having a simple catch dropped at square leg, though the sun was a factor. He made way for Bob Hyacinth, who took a wicket in each of his first three overs. He had Basham caught at cover by Dharmik, Patel at mid off by Chris Brown and Mike Goodchild at point by Gurupal. The last pair were genuine tail enders, and Dharmik ended the innings with his final scheduled delivery by at last bowling a straight ball.

Corinthians 133-7 (33.5 overs), Raj Meswani 39 (50 balls), A Naylor 25 (61 balls), A Samarth 16* (30 balls), M Goodchild 4-43

Raj Meswani drilled the first ball of the innings to the long on boundary and added 5 more runs in the first over. Patel began with two maidens, but Raj hit him out of the attack when his 4th over cost 12, including a big 6 over long on. He was replaced by Samit Patel, who fired the ball in at leg stump but was pulled by Raj for 4 when he dropped a little short. Naylor emulated this in the 14th over to bring up the 50, though in the next saw his partner play across the line and be bowled by Copus. Gurupal slammed 10 from 4 balls to end Patel's spell, and Naylor cut a Copus full toss for 4, but it became 72-2 when Gurupal tried to slog Charlie Goodchild's second ball and any one of four fielders could have held the skier at slip. Either side of the drinks interval Chris Brown helped Naylor add 26, getting off the mark magnificently by pulling Copus for 4 through mid wicket. When Mike Goodchild returned Naylor hit him for two leg side fours, then was given out LBW. At the other end, and without addition, Chris Brown gave Samit the chance to get his own back with a catch at point, making it 98-4. The asking rate was under 2 an over, and the target should have been comfortable with 6 wickets in hand, but Goodchild senior had three Shahs each caught for 2 to keep it interesting. Darpit was held at mid off, Dharmik skied an attempted big hit to the bowler and 12-year-old Amol looked the most composed by pushing two singles on the offside before being held at leg gully to make it 120-7. He just beat Fred Newman's record for the youngest batsmen to score a run for the club. Akshay, who played one of the shots of the day with a drive through extra cover, and Bob levelled the scores before a big outswinger from Copus eluded everybody to end the match.