Gentlemen of West London v. Northfields

Sunday 9 August 2009, Alexandra RG, Surbiton. Gents won toss. Sunny, 25C

Won by 85 runs

A record eighth-wicket stand in Gents matches of 95 between debutant Sumit Kumar and Sanjay Patel secured victory at sunny Surbiton. Northfields approached their task methodically but were shot down by Iqbal, who took four wickets on a track that helped both pace and spin. The opposition were friendly and are definite candidates for home and away games in 2010, particularly as they have their own ground, leased in perpetuity from a local school.

Northfields were founded in 1920, 68 years before The Gents and such is the size of their squad they field two Sunday teams. The Gents have no such luxury and indeed were struggling for players until Dhruv Patel came up with three Close PF lads and Ahsan bludgeoned his mate Ashad Ali to train up from Crawley for a game. Thanks go to them and apologies to Sandeep Bisht who missed out through miscommunication from the club.

Khan and Hemin Patel opened very solidly once more against Mahomed’s quicks and Richard’s medium-pacers before the former pinned Khan lbw in the ninth over. Hemin had started impressively with an exquisite cover-driven four and a six over mid-wicket (Khan peppered the same spot with a maximum a few overs later) but was starved of the strike for a few overs before being bowled by the off-spinner Attree, who had accounted for Denton with his first ball. This flurry of wickets also included a rare failure from Iqbal, but his day was far from over. Sciberras, Ali and Dubey batted attractively if briefly and when Gents had declined to 103/7 in the 22nd. over Northfields could have been forgiven for thinking they had the innings wrapped up. Sumit Kumar and Sanjay Patel had other ideas.

Their stand had power – both hit a six, Kumar’s a blow of transcontinental distance out of the ground – but it also had intelligence and wisdom. Neither batsman resorted to slogging, they simply took the ones and twos and clubbed the bad ball, Kumar hitting six fours and the captain five. Mahomed broke the stand in the final over before signing off with two authentic dismissals, Toft and Singh edging identically to second slip.

Apart from Anmol Singh’s nervous single over, The Gents’ bowlers exerted control throughout the innings, Ahsan Iqbal doing rather more than that by blasting out four of the top seven. John and Peter batted well but when the former was foolishly run out The Gents ran through the batting with little alarm, though the catching was extremely poor, with four being shelled. Paradoxically the outcricket was otherwise sharp, with two run outs and a number of good stops, especially from Sciberras. He and Hemin Patel bowled tightly.

 What of the pitch? It was two-paced but far from a horror strip. It was interesting that the Northfields home wicket also suffered from irregular bounce. No doubt the heavy rain on the Thursday before the match did not help pitch preparation, but the facilities were otherwise decent. In summary, it was a good game with new friends made and a debut fifty and record partnership to satisfy the statisticians.