Edgware beat Chiswick to extend 2023 winning streak

With the forecast of heavy rain expected ahead of Sunday's clash with Chiswick, Edgware were surprised to get the nod to travel down to Chiswick House to play their second game of the season.

In drizzly conditions, Edgware won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to bowl. Sajith Sriwickramasekaran and Dean Veerapen opened the bowling as they have done thus far in 2023 and were extremely economical as Chiswick crawled their way to 12 off the first 11 overs, with Dean removing opener Sam Hall for 0. A change of bowling brought immediate results as Kabeer Soni then removed Chiswick's captain Michael Parkyn lbw for 0 and shortly after, Miles Dyson for 5 with an in swinging yorker to leave Chiswick 28-3 at the 20-over mark.

Chiswick began a minor recovery post drinks as Peter Nathan and Fahd Baig negotiated the spin of Jaimin Patel to take the Chiswick score beyond 40. However, debutant Jeet Swaminarayan looked superb with ball in hand and removed three Chiswick batters (all bowled) to end with figures of 3/6 off his 6 overs (the third best figures on debut for an Edgware player).

With Chiswick floundering at 50-6, captain Sajith Sriwickramasekaran provided Vinay Acharya with this first bowl since the 2022 inter club and 2 overs for debutant Hersh Patel. Vinay certainly kept the Chiswick batters on their toes as 4 no balls and 3 wides were delivered before a perfect straight delivery to remove the middle stump of Redian Ohrey for 2. When Ciaran Hosty's loopy "spin" removed the resilient Peter Nathan for 15, captain Saj decided to call back himself and Dean to finish the innings and they did with Dean removing Barnaby Whitehead for 4 before Saj took the final wicket of Charlie Harris for 5 to dismiss Chiswick for just 88 off 40.3 overs.

In response, Edgware jumped on anything short and wide and raced to 20-0 off the first over as opener Ciaran Hosty dispatched James Chaplin for 2 early sixes. Edgware moved to 30-0 before Ciaran Hosty was caught on the boundary looking for six number three to welcome debutant Ash Balkaran to the crease. Shuraj Vekaria then took over and played some delightful straight drives past the bowler to race to 17 not out off just 8 deliveries before he was caught out by a surprise bouncer which was caught by the impressive Dusty Dyson.

Nerves would have started to set in when Dusty Dyson removed Vinay Acharya for a first ball duck to leave Edgware 58-3 and memories of their mini collapse at Batchworth the week before still fresh in the minds. However, Ash Balkaran (28*) and Hersh Patel (7*) showed great composure to knock off the remaining runs with relative ease and secure a 7-wicket win (this is the first time Edgware have won their opening two games in a season).

Edgware's next game is against Old Camdenians on Saturday 29th April before a very difficult fixture against Malden Wanderers on Sunday 30th April in the ECB National Club Championship. Wishing the boys a good week and we look forward to seeing the boys in blue in action next weekend!