Match Report

Saturday 22 August 2009, at Cavendish Sports Ground, Field End Road, Eastcote - Lost by 8 wickets (Ref. 200923)

Debuts: Avnish Shah, Vinod Shah

In the first meeting between the clubs a strong Kensington & Chelsea side had no trouble in defeating a depleted Wealdstone Corinthians side on a sunny afternoon at Cavendish. Chris Clark won the toss for the home team and chose to bat first, partly because he only had 10 players and one of those, an opening bowler, was arriving late due to work commitments. The other reason wasn't known at the time, but became apparent when the visitors batted, namely that it didn't bear thinking about how many runs they would have amassed if they had batted first with no limitation on overs. (Possibly Linthwaite's record of 354-4 declared, made in 30 overs, would have been threatened.) Chasing a target of 127 they knocked off the runs inside 15 overs, a feature of which was that every over contained at least one boundary. Earlier Corinthians made a bad start when hard-hitting opener Raj Meswani was dismissed in the first over, and prolific Cavendish scorer John Wakeling also made a duck. Only a 2nd wicket stand of 47 between Andy Naylor and battling debutant Avnish Shah, then another of 40 for the 7th wicket dominated by top scorer Phil Cundy, provided any sort of hope.

Corinthians 126 (32.3 overs), P Cundy 36 (35 balls), A Naylor 20 (42 balls), Extras 34, Arun 4-30

The visitors opened with Damian at the Pavilion End and with his third ball he bowled Raj with an inswinging yorker. The batsman can count himself unlucky as it was one of the few straight deliveries the bowler with the long run-up produced. A leg bye and a bye meant Andy Naylor faced Ricky, another quick bowler, from the Steve Brown End and he steered the first ball to third man for 4. The partnership with the left-hander Avnish Shah developed with singles and extras,then Avnish glided a lifting ball from Damian through the slips for his first boundary. Naylor took 2 off Ricky and moved into double figures next ball with a cover drive for 4, and the new ball pair were seen off with the score on 41-1 after 11 overs. This improved further when 6 came off Rony's first over, including a Naylor boundary, but he was caught at point in Arun's first over. The off spinner turned one to bowl John Wakeling in his next over, before the 50 came up with 4 byes. Although Avnish pulled Arun for two fours it was 64-4 in the 18th over when Sandip Shah fell to a good catch by Ricky off Rony. Akshay Samarth drove Arun for 4 before the next wicket went at 71, when Rony bowled Avnish for 16 to end his 21 overs of resistance. Phil Cundy was soon off the mark with an excellent off drive for 4, but in Rony's next over Akshay was unable to react quickly enough to a change of call and was run out for 8. The visitors had impressed in the field and a big partnership was needed to provide any kind of contest. Dharmik Shah got off the mark by driving Arun for four, and the 100 came up in the 26th over with a wide after Phil had hit Rony for 11 runs. He edged closer to one thousand career boundaries, off the middle of the bat, by hitting a four and a single off both Arun then the returning Ricky, before the Corinthians innings folded with three wickets in the space of 13 balls. Dharmik was caught in the deep off Arun, Phil fell likewise off Ricky for a fine 36 and although Chris Clark guided Ricky to third man for 4 he ran out of partners when Vinod Shah was bowled by Arun and Leanne declined to bat at number 11 despite being suitably dressed.

Kensington & Chelsea 130-2 (14.5 overs), Raj Meswani 1-22, A Samarth 1-39, Gau 47* (32 balls), Aamad 41 (34 balls), Damien 35* (17 balls)

Ominously both opening batsmen Aamad and Sandeep got off the mark first ball in the first over, bowled by Dharmik Shah. Aamad drove Akshay Samarth's first ball towards the cover boundary for three, but two balls later Akshay became the first bowler to take 20 wickets this season when Sandeep was caught behind by Andy Naylor sticking out his right glove. Off the last ball of the over Gau drove through Dharmik at cover and what should have been a dot ball became a four. He wasn't the only culprit, though better ground fielding would only have delayed arrival at the pub as the batsmen seemed able to find gaps at will against the ten fielders. When Dharmik was hit for three consecutive fours by Aamad, who was using his feet well, Andy Naylor stood up whenever he was facing to try and reduce his freedom. The 50 partnership arrived in the 7th over when the score passed 60, and John Wakeling was brought on to replace Dharmik. He began respectably, conceding just two fours and a 2 in his first two overs, though the score had raced to 85-1 from 11 overs. Raj Meswani replaced Akshay and with his second ball induced Aamad to pull, only for him to top edge and be caught by the keeper, who remembered to keep his gloves on. This brought in Damian and he was in even more of a hurry as a batsman than he had been as a bowler. He slammed his first ball through mid wicket for 4 and 20 balls later, most of which he had faced, the match was over when he did the same to Wakeling.