Kothari and Varsani dominate Greenwood Park to secure Edgware's first CVL win

Rahul Kothari and Kishan Varsani were the stars of the show as Edgware secured their first Chess Valley League (CVL) win of the season against Greenwood Park.

It was a humid day in St Albans as Edgware took on Greenwood Park for the third time and the first since a tough loss in 2019. Losing the toss, Greenwood Park chose to bat first on what appeared to be an even wicket, albeit slightly up and down with some signs of wear and tear. Rahul Kothari and Alpesh Gorsia opened the bowling for Edgware and immediately looked threatening. Rahul Kothari in particular bowled perhaps one of his finest opening spells in an Edgware shirt as Greenwood Park struggled to find answers in the early exchanges. It took only one over before Rahul Kothari cleaned up Arslan Khan for a duck to reduce Greenwood Park to 1-1 and it didn't get much better for the hosts as Rahul Kothari raced to 4 wickets within his first four overs to leave Greenwood Park's innings in tatters.

Alpesh Gorsia then removed the hard hitting Raja Palaniappan for 12 to leave Greenwood Park five down and in need of some middle order resistance. Hamza Malik and Sarfraz Akram started the rebuild and frustrated Edgware's first and second change pair of Ananya Dixit and Sajith Sriwickramasekaran as the pair put on some much needed runs. However, with the momentum starting to inch towards Greenwood, Sarfraz Akram top-edged Ananya Dixit to a backward peddling Ciaran Hosty at point who took a smart one handed grab to push Edgware firmly back in the driving seat. Ananya Dixit then removed Hamza Malik for 24 to leave Greenwood Park seven down and heading towards a score in the early 100s. Unfortunately for Edgware, Greenwood captain Ajmal Hussain came out swinging and played well for 39, including 8 boundaries before he was comfortably caught by Sajith Sriwickramasekaran off the bowling of Vidanda Galgamuwa (the latter famously took 5-for against Greenwood in 2018 as part of a promotion ending campaign). After Ajmal Hussain fell, the Greenwood Park innings came to a sudden close as Nakul Jilka jumped into the attack and took the two final wickets in 5 balls to end the innings on 145.

In response, Edgware looked comfortable as Ciaran Hosty and Nakul Jilka got the boys in blue off to a good start. Ciaran Hosty raced to 22 off 23 deliveries before top edging a full delivery to mid-on to leave Edgware 36-1 within the first 8 overs. Nakul Jilka looked classy and tidy as always and with new batsman Kishan Varsani passed to 50 mark and looked to be gathering some momentum. However, when Nakul Jilka was bowled attempting a big hit for 20 off 45 balls, there would have been some nervousness on the Edgware sidelines.

In truth though they needn't have worried, as Kishan Varsani looked in superb touch and hit the Greenwood Park bowlers to all parts of the ground as he raced to his 13th club fifty. Vidanda Galgamuwa put on 52 for the third wicket with Kishan Varsani before he fell leg before wicket to Rajiv to leave Edgware 128-3. Captain Sajith Sriwickramasekaran then joined Kishan Varsani at the crease with the latter hitting three fours in a row to win the game and give Edgware their first four points of the 2022 CVL season.