Gentlemen of West London v. Hale

Sunday 21 June 2009, Fairfield RG, Kingston. Gents won toss. Sunny, 22C

Won by 145 runs

The Gents batted consistently on a fiery wicket to post a par 217 before inducing a collapse by the visitors who,

understandably unused to the caprices of Fairfield Recreation Ground, fell to 72 all out. Murali Kalidindi scored a club personal best and Suman Rudru carded his first five-for. Hale’s collapse was the third in four mid-June innings at this venue, a distressing statistic. Nevertheless, The Gents can be pleased with their afternoon’s work, which brought about their tenth successive win, achieved by a team missing its best batsman, two fastest bowlers and the entire previous week’s top five.

There were sound contributions throughout The Gents’ innings, an array configured differently from recent weeks in a bid by Hemin Patel to get Kalidindi, Palmer and himself into form with the bat. In the event, the two Accenture boys scored ducks but to show the fine margin between success and failure Palmer was superbly caught by a diving R Spreadborough off his first attacking shot while Kalidindi was dropped behind before he had scored. His batting thereafter was a joy.

In order to complete the eleven after several midweek withdrawals, Naveed Khan kindly brought along his holidaying nephew Waleed, a polite young man from Lahore who is studying three proper subjects at ‘A’ level – maths, chemistry and physics. Uncle batted fluently, despite not being over his bout of influenza. Kalidindi took up the reins before edging Giles’s first ball behind, the first of three for the off-spinner.

There was more assertive batting down the order. Batsmen five to nine all made double figures and all played to form, 132 runs coming in the last 18 overs. Hale worked hard for their successes and several of their outfielders were enlucky with perverse outfield bounces, but when the ball was there to be hit, hit it most certainly was. Rudru and Lalam were particularly impressive but Inkollu and Toft also batted with elan.

Davies cut Hibbert to point in the second over of the reply and when G Spreadborough was bowled by the wily Jamaican Hale were up against it. Students of the curious will note that Giles and Weaver then added 49, more than two thirds of the whole innings score. They batted very solidly, assisted by the extras which are plaguing The Gents in 2009. The captain then introduced Rudru, who produced The Gents’ fastest bowling of the day and himself. This double change turned the game as Hale collapsed from 58-2 to 72 all out. Weaver holed out to Lalam, whose fielding was outstanding, Giles edged to slip and Shu Desai pouched two nicks to see off R Spreadborough and Calvert. The end came after 26 overs. Hale seemed in shock.

But what a cheery bunch they are. They said they enjoyed their big day out in London though not perhaps the wicket. While it was an efficient performance by The Gents, margins of victory such as these do neither club much good. On the more placid wickets of Hale, the sides proved well matched in 2006 and 2008 and that is possibly the key to it. If The Gents are to host Hale again it will have to be on a better wicket.