Edgware one game from perfection after double-win weekend
Edgware had a weekend to remember after two fantastic wins that meant the club secured their first double-win weekend of the year and their first since August 2022.
Saturday - Old Minchendenians IIIs
In Saturday's game, Edgware won the toss and elected to bat against Old Minchendenians IIIs who had trailed off after a successful start to the season. Ciaran Hosty and Jeet Swaminarayan opened the batting and navigated the early exchanges, with the pitch providing some assistance to the opening bowlers. The opening pair were forced to run hard between the wickets given the slow outfield as a result of the heavy rain the day before which certainly tested their fitness or lack thereof. Despite the challenges, the openers made it through to drinks and brought up the century partnership shortly after with Ciaran Hosty moving to his 24th career fifty.
Ciaran eventually fell for 62 as he looked to up the scoring rate, inside edging the ball onto the wicket-keepers pads which then ricocheted onto the stumps to see the opener stumped. Shuraj Vekaria then joined Jeet at the crease and Edgware's keeper looked busy between the wickets as the two continued to build on the strong foundations set. However, Jeet Swaminarayan fell soon after, just short of what would have been a battling 50 as he edged the ball behind for 47 to Old Minch's wicket-keeper. One wicket always brings two and it did in this case as Vidanda Galgamuwa was adjudged lbw for 0 by stand-in umpire Dean Veerapen to leave Edgware 129-3. The word on the ground was that skipper Vid inside edged the ball before it hit the pad but Dean was ruthless with his decision making and perhaps unearthed some deep rooted resentment for Vidanda in the process. Needless to say, Dean will likely be putting out and collecting the flags for the remainder of the season.
Sagar Raghvani and Shuraj Vekaria continued the good work made by the top order to further extend Edgware's total past 150 with some hard hitting strokes and quick running between the wickets. Shuraj eventually fell for 21 and was followed soon by Sagar (23) and Thrisul Suganthan (0) to leave Edgware 175-6 with just a handful of overs to go. Ash Balkaran and Raj Parmar looked to accelerate at the end of the innings and Raj in particular looked at his destructive best, launching two huge sixes over the ropes to race to 21 off 13 deliveries and most importantly push Edgware past the 200 mark. Edgware would finish on 204-6 off 40 overs, a very competitive total on a ground where 160 would be par with the slow outfield.
In response, Edgware looked threatening as they often do with the new ball. Raj Parmar in particular bowled with good pace and targeted the stumps and was rewarded for his efforts as he dismissed Old Minch's opener for a duck. Old Minchendenians were resilient but continued to lose wickets at regular intervals as first change Tushyam Sonecha removed Sri Narayanam for 14 to secure his 50th career wicket, a tremendous achievement which highlights the immense progress Tush has made at the club.
Old Minchendenians looked to have an outside chance whilst their number four was at the crease and he looked handy as he struck Ash Balkaran for a mighty six over long on to extend Old Minchendenians score to 62-3. However, the temptations to keep going big would prove too big for Old Minch's number four as he hauled out to Dean Veerapen on the long on boundary attempting to recreate his efforts from the over before.
The introduction of spin from Edgware would all but end Old Minchendenians' hopes in this game as Jaimin Patel bowled with good pace and turn and created problems for all the batters. The leg-spinner would first remove Sujan Depala with a ball that turned from middle stump and struck off before ending Arpith Kandlakunta's batting duties who was smartly pouched at slip by Ciaran Hosty. Some expert run outs from both Vidanda Galgamuwa and Raj Parmar would further sink Old Minch's ship before Vid then claimed a wicket of his own with his trusty leg-spin. The final wicket of the innings fell to Dean Veerapen who forced a top edge that was taken by Jeet Swaminarayan (despite the calls from the wicketkeeper) at point to close Old Minchendenians innings on 121 all out and provide Edgware with a 83 run victory.
Edgware remain unbeaten in Saturday league cricket this year and have now won 8 in a row this season and 11 in a row since their last loss against Batchworth in July 2022. Respect. A win against Old Minchendenians IIs next week will secure their spot at the top of the 11E standings and result in the club's first unbeaten league campaign since the Chess Valley League Division 5 campaign in 2018.
Sunday - Harrow St Marys
In Sunday's game, Edgware went into the fixture with just two victories from 7 matches in what has been a disappointing Chess Valley League campaign. However, Edgware won the toss on what looked a spicy pitch with plenty of grass on top and elected to bowl. Sajith Sriwickramasekaran and Dean Veerapen bowled with excellent control and picked up a wicket a-piece of both openers to leave Harrow St Marys on 49-2 after the first 12 overs.
Things would instantly get better for Edgware when Harrow St Mary's number three, James Francis ran himself out by nudging the ball to Jeet Swaminarayan at square leg and the 19-year old wunderkind threw down the stumps in the process to leave Harrow St Mary's teetering at 49-3. Unfortunately for Edgware, Harrow St Mary's number 5 (Jawakie Joseph) looked handy and as it turned out, was the club's overseas import. The Antiguan right hander led a one man show which started with striking 4 consecutive sixes off Jonathan Roskin over the shortish boundary on the leg side resulting in multiple ball replacements, panic attacks amongst Edgware's senior players and a fantastic advertisement for the batter's bat which he was trying to sell copy's of mid-innings. The hard-hitting man from the Caribbean then continued to deposit all of Edgware's bowlers for numerous sixes over the pavilion and into the surrounding fields and bushes as he raced to 79 off 46 balls in an innings that included just the 9 sixes.
However, while the Antiguan was undoubtedly brilliant, Dean Veerapen clearly had him in his back pocket as the medium pacer only needed three deliveries to remove him. The Antiguan eventually hauled out to Hersh Patel at mid-off who took a very smart catch on the run. At the other end, stand-in spinner Shuraj Vekaria was showing the same class he showed earlier in the season when he took 4 wickets in the Hertfordshire Saturday League. Shuraj bowled with great control and varied his pace to take three wickets and leave Harrow St Marys 193-8, having been 152-3.
Tushyam Sonecha continued his expert bowling from the day before by removing the last two batsmen (both bowled) in a cracking final over that read four deliveries, no runs conceded, two wickets. Harrow St Mary's would end their innings on 196 all out off 37 overs with 8 overs in the bank.
Edgware would need a strong start to chase down these runs and despite seeing off the first few overs, lost Jeet Swaminarayan for just 7 when he was adjudged lbw off Sohan Manji. Sohan's day would get even better moments later when he removed Shuraj Vekaria for three leaving Edgware in trouble at 37-2. However, calm would be restored when Ash Balkaran strolled to the crease and his class showed straight away as he looked particularly strong off his legs to move Edgware past the 50 mark.
However, what was a fairly light hearted fixture soon turned very intense as Harrow St Mary's players saw red-mist following two not out decisions from Edgware's umpires. As a result, Harrow St Mary's Antiguan import decided to bench his off-spin and bowl his 80mph pace deliveries with calls for body line tactics from the wicket-keeper and slip cordon. Ciaran Hosty and Ash Balkaran played the pace bowler well in the early exchanges and earned numerous byes and wides as the Harrow St Mary's fielders themselves struggled to handle the zip and ferocity behind the ball. Edgware moved to 94-2 just before the drinks break when Ciaran Hosty was caught on the crease and was adjudged lbw for 43 off 52 balls.
After drinks, a fully hydrated Jawakie Joseph came storming in once again from the pavilion end as it became apparent that this was no longer a Harrow St Mary's v Edgware fixture but instead Jawakie Joseph v Edgware. Joseph removed Ash Balkaran for a well earned 24 before removing Hersh Patel for a battling 7 to leave Edgware 122-5 and still some 70 runs adrift of the target. There were huge cheers from the bench when Jawakie Joseph finished his 10th over and was out of the attack with Jonathan Roskin punching the air in delight (David Warner style) as the right hander survived the final 5 deliveries of the Antiguan's spell.
Sajith Sriwickramasekaran and Jonathan Reskin then got to work on the remainder of the Harrow St Mary's bowling line up and worked the ball around the ground, striking the occasional four to keep Edgware in the hunt. Edgware's efforts were helped immensely by Harrow St Mary's ball control or lack thereof as the bowling side racked up a total of 54 extras (Edgware's top scorer on the day which included 32 wides and 15 byes). Roskin and Sriwickramasekaran put on 65 for the 6th wicket (the fourth highest 6th wicket partnership in Edgware history) to bring Edgware within touching distance of a famous victory. When Jonathan fell for a redeeming 21 (having gone for 25 in an over earlier that day), Vish Mistry stepped up to the plate with two to win and nonchalantly glanced the ball for two to secure a brilliant Edgware victory and their 8th highest chase in the club's history (best at Mill Hill Village's back pitch).
Despite the hostilities mid-game, the game was played in good spirits and Edgware's win leapfrogs them up to 6th in the Chess Valley League where they'll likely finish subject to Ickenham's performances in their last two fixtures.
Bình luận