Hadley Wood play at;
Botany Bay Cricket Ground East Lodge Lane EN2 8AS
http://www.botanybaycc.co.uk/
Transported to Botany Bay
Our third league game took place on Sunday 16th June against Hadley Wood Green in a picturesque but remote ground between Enfield and Potters Bar. Some can testify it was a long trudge carrying kit from Crews Hill Station. A large scoring hut in one corner with electronic scoreboard remotely operated from the Pavilion and Bar area.
Saif of HWG won the toss and they batted first. As I was delayed by working, Paul Regan worked on our scorebook with young Ronan, son of Nee, operating the electronic board by gadget. All intuitive but sometimes the board needed a resend. Later I was able to continue and Ralph took on the challenge masterly after instructions from Stuart.
Newton and Ari, now fitter, opened the bowling tightly with the first casualty being their second player, Mohammed Paves, in the 5th and the score only at 14. Manish took up in the 10th soon joined by Mahender and in the 13th Mahender removed their Captain Saif who had swiftly accumulated 26. Mahender took Sha in the 17th. Meanwhile Rana Ghosh, their opener, had now reached 32 of their 79 as although Adam was efficient behind the wicket, we gave a lot of wides in this innings. Paul Regan only managed 1 before departing at the hands of Manish in the 18th. Chetan took off his pads in the 22nd again after Manish. The big target was Rana who reached 53 before Manish terminated his innings and then Sam and Andrew were our new bowling pair.
Sam got their player Nee Wijeysekera who had been planned for 9th but was 8th in the 27th as Andrew made a diving catch to secure while Wayne settled in and in fact the partnership of older Dave Turner and Wayne was quite lengthy until Dave succumbed to Nadeem in the fifth ball of the 42nd, a swift stumping by Adam. The lengthiest partnership just applauded at 50, with the 2nd wicket partnership failing at 49. Young player Jairaj Regan went in full of hope but Nadeem on next ball invited him to lift it safely to Midwicket and Manish? , departing on a Golden Duck. Last player in now and Manish starts the next over, the 43rd, by removing Wayne for 33. We therefore have an effective hat trick, three wickets in three balls and they have scored a total 180. Despite the worries of their catering lady who had warm food prepared, they were foiled in their plan to reach 200 but had gained 6 batting points which were to be forfeited if the innings continued into any 46th or more up to 50 for a side batting first.
Tea was a pleasant selection including some warm food and we calculated we had 86 minutes of batting before a drinks interval and then the hour of play if needed which needed a minimum of 20 overs to reach 181. The scoreboard decided differently so there is probably a setting option on the terminal to determine options of target display.
Mahender and Ari opened for us, facing Dave Turner and Paul Regan. Lovely strokes including a 6 from Mahender stated our intent but the rhythm was paused in the 4th as Ari was LBW to Paul for 7. Saif and Rana now continued bowling from the 8th and there was some atmospheric temperament change. On Rana first ball, he got the prized wicket of Mahender for 40 as he bowled him clean. Nadeem was the new player to join Adam. The next change in bowling brought in young Jairaj while Rana continued. Jairaj avenged his batting mistiming by inducing Adam to loft into the waiting hands of Saif in his first over with a credible tally of 16 while Nadeem was regularly driving boundaries, so much so that we reached 100 in the 17th over.
Leo opened with a boundary but all too soon Jairaj had him LBW. In the next over Niroshan had opened his score but under the stewardship of Rana and reflexive fielding was run out. The break was taken after 21 overs resulting in a potential maximum of 41 to be played to secure a result with 74 required and five wickets in hand. Stuart and still Nadeem being the pair.
Sha replaced Rana in bowling while Jairaj continued but paused after five overs in line with ECB recommendations for younger (14?) bowlers. Maybe Saif also bowled some of that batch as they were similar. Stuart was caught and bowled by Sha in the 25th for 7 and it was now Newton paired with Nadeem. Chetan had a single expensive over and Rana came back in orders to dislodge our guys to no avail. Jairaj also started back and continued his economy and almost had Newton but the catch was dropped and it was the start of a second over from Chetan, the 35th or 14th of 20 as now displayed, that a boundary off wide nudged us to 183 and victory yet again in league. 3 wins from 3 played. Newton was still there with 17 but our star batsman and man of match today was Nadeem with his two wickets and his 68. Regrettably the bar was not available after match so players soon dispersed but it had been a steady match leaving us at 60 points and top of the table again. Chigwell lie second at 57 from 5 matches. By the time this report appears, the league table was not yet updated but might take us to new heights by Monday when the result of our Broxbourne match against Mayfield on 23rd is known. In their bowling, Jairaj was the most efficient and had two wickets with Rana the next best over 10 bowled.
Some may have pics from this match to share and it was good to have Robert, Simon, Pat and Ralph amongst our support.