Gentlemen of West London v. West XI

Sunday 6 September, Fairfield RG, Kingston. West XI won toss. Sunny, 21C

Won by 2 wickets

A steely batting performance saw The Gents scrape past a competitive West XI by two wickets at sunny Kingston to take the 2009 Bob Ashton Memorial Cup 3-0, the first Gents whitewash since 1999. The game ebbed and flowed all day and the tension in the latter stages was palpable, but the strong Gents’ tail knew enough to edge home, though the hosts could have had few complaints had West XI won. In fact, great credit attaches to the Beggars, who overcame logistical problems to act as an impressive team unit when it would have been excusable for them to fold in a slough of despond. Instead, we had a fine, hard game worthy of the trophy.

The odd events before the game perhaps explain the muted start to the match. West XI had suffered four withdrawals on the Saturday and a fifth on the day itself. Greg Newcombe, recent Gent regular and Naresh Podla, a friend of Ravi Inkollu who borrowed Sanjay Patel’s spare whites, were therefore loaned out to supplement the eight Beggar members. Precedents for this go back to 1991, when West XI’s Milton Jolin captured four of his own team’s wickets. Most recently, Steve Bignell played for Gents in September 2008. Nor had the imps that sometimes beset cricket clubs finished their little jape, for transportation problems then delayed two more visitors. It was as well then that Wright won the toss. He had little choice but to bat and, leading from the front, opened with himself and Dane.

The opening overs were something of a phoney war with Inkollu and Snelling suffering a little in their accuracy and sending a good many balls harmlessly wide of the stumps, though both would bowl improved second spells. Dane looked on form from the word go and would go on to hit his fifth fifty in this series, but Wright was more circumspect, realising the importance of crease occupation. Rudru induced an edge from him into Shu Desai’s safe gloves in the eleventh over before Newcombe gave Dane solid support until the captain bowled him in the 21st. Boden and Dane are both class acts but their stand lasted only as long as it took Dane to reach an excellent fifty (eight fours), Desai again obliging, this time off the captain, who then castled Delanian first ball, 81-4. Podla’s three scoring shots were all fours and he looked a potential matchwinner until his mate Inkollu knocked his leg stump out of the ground.

The innings was now at a pivotal stage, with Boden and Allerton together at 103-5 and wickets in hand, but with fewer than eight overs left some fast scoring was needed. Allerton started to provide it but Boden gave Desai his third catch, off Inkollu, two overs later. A bright stand gave Beggars hope of 150 but Snelling had Bignell caught at mid-wicket before the captain bowled Allerton for a breezy 28, the innings closing on 144-8. Experienced pundits could not split the sides at the halfway point. Those players new to the Fairfield RG ground may be interested to read that this wicket was certainly not below average for recent seasons, but what is beyond dispute is that changing facilities and teas are fit for purpose. All chaps had earned their repose and sustenance.

The Gents bowled well for the most part, though there were a few too many full-tosses for comfort, and made some good stops in the bumpy outfield. Rudru achieved impressive pace off his short run and Hemin Patel and Sciberras might have got among the wickets. Sanjay Patel deserved his rich haul for his nagging accuracy and intelligent use of the conditions. The four catches took the 2009 aggregate to 77, beating the previous record of 73 set in 2006. Shu Desai’s personal haul rose to 12, only two behind Ian Maughan’s 1993 record. But perhaps more impressive here were his athleticism and glovework. His concession of only two byes on a wicket that alternately crept and leapt was exemplary. It was yet another brilliant performance from him.

It had been agreed that The Gents would field 12 in rotation but bat eleven. So it was that Hemin Patel changed from his whites into civilian clothing featuring his famous, much-loved Tarantino T shirt, parts of which still fit. Within minutes, however poor Shu Desai, in prime recent batting form, had to leave to attend to a domestic emergency so Hemin quickly changed back. He would go on to play a central part in the unfolding drama.

West XI had to wait only nine balls until Sachin Desai chopped high to cover but Gilkes responded by hitting Wright for two fours in the fourth over before being daftly run out in the fifth after a misunderstanding with Rudru. The hurled bat and booted helmet went miles in a most impressive tantrum. Rudru then embarked on a fusillade of four boundaries before holing out off Boden’s sixth ball. At 46-3 in just nine overs, run rate was unlikely to be an issue but Beggars were not finished. Far from it, as Inkollu feathered Wright (bowling his spell through) to the ’keeper and Buck lost concentration and drove over a straight one from Boden, the only bowled victim in the innings.

With Gents 63-5, West XI were favourites, though the impressive Wright (7-3-16-2) was bowled out. The Patels proved equal to the crisis. Hemin started nervously, every miss and a couple of Chinese cuts cheered to the echo by Allerton, but he toughed it out, while at the other end Sanjay looked very assured. They added 33 in six overs before Laing struck, inducing Hemin to hole out to deep mid-wicket. Laing got his brace of Patels when the captain drove to mid-on, but Kalidindi had started brightly, playing some sumptuous shots off the back foot before came the game’s only point of controversy. Umpire Sachin Desai gave Kalidindi caught behind by a diving Bignell but he stood his ground, claiming the ball had hit his arm. Square-leg umpire Gilkes confirmed this and he was allowed to continue but this was an unusual incident, though West XI made nothing of it in their match report. Perhaps Murali remembered New Beckenham 2008, when Peter Denton unsuccessfully tried to negotiate his dismissal caught Laing off what he claimed to be a bump ball.

Newcombe got Kalidindi in his second over with 19 runs still needed but Snelling and Sciberras are talented, experienced batsmen and although there was the odd play and miss they steered The Gents safely to harbour with four overs left, the winning stroke being a Sciberras on-driven four off Boden. They were nerveless in their execution and played Dane’s second spell particularly well, Snelling attributing his recent improved batsmanship to nightly practice sessions with his six year-old son in the back garden. With only one dismissal in the season, he leapt to the top of the batting averages, runs 64, average 64.00!

Not the least interesting facet of the entertaining 2009 competition was the disposition of the three captains, Chris Wright, Hemin Patel and Sanjay Patel, to use bowlers, and plenty of them, in short spells. Of the 15 Gents and 17 West XI players, only eight did not bowl: Buck, H Desai, Kalidindi, Gilkes and Toft on one side and Bapu, Delanian and Podla on the other. In the CSSC game, Gents used 9 bowlers to West XI’s 8. At Old Tenisons the split was 8-8 and at Fairfield 6-7. There were tactical reasons for this, but it seems that the days are gone when you could write out before the game the names and order of both sides’ five or six bowlers.