Round 1 review - 11 / 12 May
Round 1 review
The British sunshine finally drove temperatures above 20 degrees just in time for the league season to begin as the Acorns started week one of competitive cricket positively by registering four out of five wins across the weekend.
Into his 7th year as Club Captain, Sahil Kher’s first XI had a tough fixture first up away against a North London side who had finished just above them in the table in 2023. The first team set a strong total of 250 in 45 overs having won the toss. Contributions came by the way of half centuries from Lucas Carlisle (a sprightly 57 off 47), the skipper, and a maiden fifty for Raghavendra “Rags” Ravikumar – the latter two combining to put on 119 for the fourth wicket.
The fun continued for debutant Rags as he took an outrageous one-handed diving catch to get Acton their first wicket of the innings. However, at 171-2 with two set batters in the middle, it was North London who looked to cruising home until veteran left arm spinner Alex Brennan hit back with a double strike to get the 1s into the contest again. With the pressure building on a slowing deck and the game on a knife’s edge, it was Cameron O’Donnell who closed out the game - returning figures of 3 for 19 at the death, including the crucial wicket of Jaahid Ali for 75, to seal a 26-run victory.
The second XI were sent in to field first at home against Brondesbury but early strikes from Neil Lederman and Dishen Patel had the opposition three down in no time. The spinners then took over as Nazim Munna and Jordan Eggar took two wickets each to prevent any sort of major fightback as Acton were set a total of 166.
An unbeaten 57 from James Hunt at the top of the order alongside thirties from Matthew Reeve (captain on the day in Alex Manning’s absence) and Dishen Patel sealed a comfortable 6 wicket win for Acton.
Dan Waddell’s third team bowled first on a spicy deck at Gunnersbury Park and slowly churned through the Crouch End batting lineup in pairs. Two wickets each for Sunil, Frankie Zahran, debutant Ansh Vaswani and Siddharth Turaga accompanied with a couple of run outs ended the innings on 81 runs after 33 overs in the field.
However, the tricky wicket got even harder to bat on in the second innings as Acton’s batters fell victim to a clinical display from the opposing bowling attack. In particular it was Subhiksh Vasudev’s 7 for 18 that dismantled the Acorns batting for just 44.
Fortunately, Peter Ruis’ fourth team fared much better at the other end of Gunnersbury Park as they fielded first against a Hampstead 5s team. Despite an unbeaten 90 from Noor Ullah Khan, the Acorns managed to chip away at the rest of the batting lineup - eventually bowling them out for 180 thanks to a five-wicket haul from skipper Ruis.
Still chasing a sizeable target on a deck that offered a bit, Acton’s response had a shaky start with some early wickets, but a high quality 48 from Mark Maksic and some late hitting from 14-year old Hitanshu Tailor sealed the win.
Facing North Harrow at home on Sunday, Acton batted first and made 230 with forties from Scott Austin and Sunil Ghumra topped off by another half century for Raghav.
Saad Shah and Hitanshu Tailor (completing a great all-round weekend) then ripped through the opposition top order as North Harrow were 7 down before drinks, before eventually being bowled out as Acton tied up a 54-run victory.
A promising start all round – plenty of debutants, a first team featuring 4 teenagers getting the job done, and Acton colts – present and former - sprinkled throughout the four sides. The Acorns will be looking to complete a full house next week.
Player of the Week
Peter Ruis: 5-25; 5*
Fantasy league top performers
Peter Ruis: 165 points
Raghavendra Ravikumar: 126 points
James Hunt: 104 points
Cameron O’Donnell: 85 points
Lucas Carlisle: 82 points