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Having survived a series of dropped catches, posted a fair score of
151-8 on a sporting pitch and removed Taylor and Dane quickly
through Dhruv Patel’s spin, The Gents were sensing that, after a
year of Beggar dominance, the pendulum had begun to swing their way.
Two hours later, they had lost, thanks to a superb innings from
Neepam Bhatt (well-supported by cousin Bhavesh Vyas and Simon
Pryor), his first West XI fifty. Gent bowlers tried all the tricks
of the trade, fielded well but were powerless to stop the onslaught.
Both sides lacked only one star. Chris Wright had long been
unavailable but this was countered by Snarler’s late withdrawal. The
Gents had Gilkes at eleven and Beggars Bignell at ten, an indication
of the batting strength on display. Sanjay won the toss and batted
(Taylor would have fielded), risking the gung-ho Ryon Derryman as
opener. It did not work as Walton held a simple catch at square-leg
and when Ken Toft edged to slip Beggar tails were up. Wayne Thompson
went for his shots as The Gents fought back well, while Jim Wright’s
26-over vigil glued the innings together, though he was never
fluent. Thompson fell to another Taylor slip catch off a Vyas
lifter. The middle-order never broke free against the accurate, wily
Laing (who exuded noxious clouds of self-satisfaction for the rest
of the day, bless him) and the penetrative if more expensive Ling
and it took a late Buck onslaught to post the 150. At half-time The
Gents were reasonably content.
Taylor was yorked off a Husain No ball but would give a simple
caught and bowled next over. Dhruv then yorked Chris Dane but Vyas
and Bhatt went for their shots, being especially punitive on the
leg-side. Kiwi and English seam came alike to them and though they
sometimes played uppishly and survived a couple of shouts for lbw,
they put West XI ahead of the rate. Wright outed Vyas and Walton in
quick succession, but Pryor batted wisely as young Bhatt
accelerated, going on to strike 11 fours. There were 17 balls left
when four byes off the hyped-up Husain, whose early tussle with Vyas
was cricket in the raw, won the match for West XI.
The talking point after was rightly Neepam’s innings. It was a tour
de force which rendered other topics of post-match analysis – the
conditions (tough for both sides in a mixture of sun and showers),
Sanjay’s bat-first decision, the choice of bowlers, Taylor’s haircut
and spectator Snarler’s striking up of diplomatic relations with a
stunning Bulgarian piece (believed to belong to a Gent Kiwi) –
irrelevant. The Gents will need to play out of their skins to win
the 2004 Bob Ashton Memorial Cup against such a fine side, but it is
not beyond their capabilities. For now, however, the laurel wreath
belongs to a young Anglo-Indian librarian from Acton.
New Gents Neeped in the
bud
Thanks to the miracle of Their Royal Highnesses’ internet, and the
ingenious cut and paste facility invented by the Duke of Edinburgh
in 1948, we can now bring you Steve Bignell’s fair and illuminating
match report, though Sanjay’s agent denies that his client uttered
the sentiments expressed in the penultimate paragraph.
“Neeped in the bud” is pretty good, though “Bhatt out of Hell” is
better! The whole circuit is grateful for Steve’s timely, balanced
analysis of West XI’s games.
West XI went one-nil up in the 2004 Bob Ashton Memorial Cup series
with an impressive six-wicket victory over the Gentlemen of West
London at Victoria Park, Surbiton. In a match that ebbed and flowed
all day it took a career-best 82 not out from Neepam Bhatt (11
fours) to swing the game in West XI’s favour. Chasing 151 to win,
Neep was joined by Simon Pryor at 87-4 and this pair knocked off the
64 needed in just 10 overs.
There were some new faces in The Gents’ line-up, but only one
debutant, Pat Cooper, in the Beggar ranks. Batting first, The Gents
got off to a poor start; Derriman miscuing to mid-wicket and Toft
edging low to Taylor at slip, neither bothering the scorers. But
ex-London Rams Kiwi Wayne Thompson is a class player and he steadied
the innings with Jimmy Wright. Badly missed at mid-off, Thompson
made 38, dismissed soon after by a snorter from Bhav Vyas, gloved to
Taylor at slip.
A fine spell from Dave Laing kept the batsmen from accelerating and
he got a deserved wicket by bowling Dhruv Patel at 83. A scratchy
innings from Wright (32) ended when bowled by Taylor. Ling then
picked up two vital wickets, including Sanjay Patel, before
suffering as Tony Buck cut loose to cow corner in the last few overs.
Nevertheless, West XI had done well to contain the total to 150.
Though the catching behind the wicket was tip-top three routine
catches were spilled in the outfield and West XI probably conceded
20 runs too many.
Unusually, The Gents chose to open with Dhruv Patel’s spinners, but
it paid off as he induced the boy Taylor to pat back a long hop for
another blob and after Daney had wafted him for two fours, bowled
the Beggar batsman with a full-length delivery. The cricket is never
dull when Bhav and Neep come together (or Beep and Nhav as a
befuddled Steve Rennie called them later that evening) and this pair
added 66 in 14 overs, Bhav being severe when Nabil Husain strayed
down the leg side, sparking a couple of obscure exchanges between
batsmen and bowler.
Only when Thompson and Wright were bowling in tandem did The Gents
look on top, as they threatened to strangle the West XI innings.
Bhav was caught behind at 80 and Willow Man fell victim to Wright at
87, strangely looking all at sea after last week’s heroics.
As Simon Pryor joined Neep the innings was restricted to just 11
runs in eight overs, twenty dot balls going down in a row, but the
batsmen regained momentum just in time. Neep survived a loud
leg-before shout (on a day when only one appeal was answered in
favour of the fielding side) but batted brilliantly in the closing
overs, well supported by Simon pushing ones and twos.
The New Gents have a talented line-up, but lack definition. After
batting, keeping wicket and captaining the side Sanjay Patel should
not be expected to come on and bowl some overs at the death. His
second over went for 12 and virtually sealed the result, West XI
eventually coasting home with 17 balls to spare.
Despite Sanjay’s protests that West XI are currently a far more
talented side than The Gents, there is really not that much between
the teams, West XI’s current dominance (four wins on the bounce in
this series) perhaps being more psychological than physical. It was
West XI’s fifth successive win in 2004 and The Gents’ first defeat.
Despite being the last to arrive, acting West XI skipper Stewart
Taylor showed he was taking his duties seriously by taking paper and
pencil onto the field, purportedly to note down overs bowled, but in
reality to write some Surrealist poetry during the match’s quieter
interludes, an example of which follows:
”And the wrath of Patel shall lo descend upon us.
The cherry thunderbolts from the heavens diminish our valour.
Forlorn I cry “My kingdom for a shampoo bottle!”
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