Hornsey Cricket Club 1st Team v South Hampstead CC on Sun 22 Jun 2008 at 13.30
Hornsey Cricket Club Lost
Middlesex Cup – South Hampstead v Hornsey
Hornsey 223 for 7 (45 overs; Charith Dissanayaka 50, Mark Silk 38*, Chetan Patel 37)
South Hampstead 226 for 8 (38.1 overs; Joel Gregory 4-59)
South Hampstead win by 2 wickets.
In Garfield's first captaincy game for Hornsey he won the toss, chose to field and was rewarded with an opening partnership of 68 between Zarig Cooper and newcomer Charith Dissanayaka. Charith looks a very promising newcomer, batting left handed with an unaffected and positive approach to the game; watchful in defence but latching onto anything loose. He made a round 50, and departed immediately afterwards to the only catch he'd offered all game. Zarig fell for 28 to an LBW verdict that looked like it was going over the stumps - he had just hit his straps with some belligerent hitting that forced their captain to take off their opening bowler. Garfield's loss for 10 meant we were on 103-3 and in danger of relinquishing a good advantage until Chetan wrested back charge with an alert innings that kept the scoreboard moving – only one boundary in an innings of 38, which reflects a lot of good running and hitting into the gaps. Joel had provided serene support until he suffered a lax run out, curtailing the partnership on 49. Mark Silk propelled us way over 200 and onto the total of 223 that Garfield had been aiming for, with some snappy running allied to a couple of cracks past midwicket. Mark finished on an unbeaten 38 and we went to the tea quite pleased, although we might have scored a few more runs against their spinners.
South Hampstead had two fielders injured during the game, one of them indisposed for their innings after catching himself with his own studs in attempting to reel in a boundary. This advantage was counterbalanced by our taking the field with only ten men – after struggling to find an eleventh, Sanjay was a late call up and he was still making his way to the ground as the South Hampstead reply commenced. Although Joel took one of their openers for a duck in the first innings, this brought in their hard hitting number three who had scored a century the previous day and proceeded to flay us pitilessly. He scored 41 off 26 balls, assisted by the missing fielder but nevertheless a highly impressive innings which punished any width. This made it all the more frustrating that Ed caught him off a no ball.
It was a mighty relief when Sanjay arrived and the ball after he took the field Ollie bowled the danger man. This looked like it would spark a collapse in the South Hampstead innings, as Joel threatened to cut them to ribbons when he took 3-9 in 8 balls. They were left on 98-6 with one batsman absent and another on one leg; cue the seemingly inevitable comeback.
Their number seven played a superb counter attacking innings, crashing boundary after boundary without ever looking uncomfortable against us. Our bowling attack wasn't the strongest past the top three of Joel, Ollie and Marty Tucker (whose 1-41 was a sterling effort given that he produced it during a pitiless hangover on his 24th birthday). Nevertheless, when Charith prised out their number eight to leave them on 139-7 we looked once again like we were on course for a welcome victory. Yet their number nine proved distressingly adroit, and in just twelve overs the 8th wicket partnership had put on 83 runs against some of our less used bowlers and propelled them to the verge of victory. A tantalising sting in the tail came when Garfield, removing the wicketkeeper's gloves and bringing himself on in an attempt to snatch the game back, came up with a wicket maiden in the 38th over. This left them needing two runs with off their last wicket with an injured tailender at the crease. Sadly the number seven held his nerve and smeared a boundary to end the game, leaving himself on a highly impressive 79* where he had offered no chances to speak of.
Typical of Hornsey's season; no sooner do we produce a sizable total then our bowling falters for once. This was a game where a patched up side played very well for long periods against quite a strong opposition team, only for our performance to tail away at the end of the match. We can console ourselves with a highly creditable performance, strong games from a couple of new players and the hope that some good time spent at the wicket might kick start our batting this season.
Author Johnny Marr
Hornsey Cricket Club 1st Team Batting
223 for 7
South Hampstead CC Bowling
| Farley |
9.0 |
1 |
65 |
0 |
0.00 |
7.22 |
| Smith |
4.0 |
0 |
16 |
0 |
0.00 |
4.00 |
| Akram |
9.0 |
2 |
30 |
1 |
30.00 |
3.33 |
| Patel |
1.0 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
0.00 |
10.00 |
| McMahon |
8.0 |
0 |
10 |
2 |
5.00 |
1.25 |
| Nolan |
9.0 |
1 |
33 |
2 |
16.50 |
3.67 |
| Drummond |
5.0 |
0 |
17 |
1 |
17.00 |
3.40 |
South Hampstead CC Batting
226 for 8
| McMahon |
27 |
Caught |
| Sialyi |
0 |
Caught |
| Sylvester |
41 |
Bowled |
| Nolan |
8 |
Caught |
| Patel |
7 |
Caught |
| Adnish |
8 |
Caught |
| Farley |
79 |
Not Out |
| Akram |
15 |
Bowled |
| Drummond |
21 |
Bowled |
| Smith |
0 |
Not Out |
| Shah |
|
|
Hornsey Cricket Club 1st Team Bowling