Round 4 review
Another mixed weekend for the Acorns with results falling either way on Saturday and the Sunday team losing their first game of the season. The club also enjoyed success in a midweek Middlesex T20 with a big victory away at Barnes.
On the road again, the first team played away at Harrow Saint Mary’s and upon winning the toss on a cloudy morning, skipper Sahil Kher elected to bowl first. The HSM openers sped away to a quick fifty run stand making use of wayward bowling from the Acton seamers. Eventually, thebreakthrough came as a result of a sharp catch at slip by Tushar Patel off the bowling of Dishen Patel as the latter got his maiden 1st team league wicket for the club. Despite Sam Harvey taking the second wicket soon after, a 90 run thirdwicket partnership put HSM into a position to post a large total. Then came three wickets for Alex Brennan and a run out from Kher that stagnated the flow of runs before Cameron O’Donnell displayed his death bowling skills once again as the HSM innings finished on 212 after 45 overs.
The Acton chase started disastrously with Tushar Patel stumped down the legside and Lucas Carlisle caught by an excellent catch at first slip. Kher and Huzaifa Yousafzai were dismissed soon after as the visitors found themselves 27 for 4. Then came a brief resistance as Dishen Patel and Raghavendra Ravikumar both got 23 before being dismissed as the rest of the batting lineup followed with the Acorns folding for just 82 and losing by 130 runs. Not exactly the best day out for the first eleven!
Fortunately the second eleven fared a lot better when batting first at home against North Middlesex. Four batters made scores in the twenties alongside a gritty 38 from James Catlow Elliot as Acton posted 213 after 45 overs with the help of 51 extras.
Acton then put a massive dent into the North Middlesex chase early into the second innings as all of the first four wickets fell to left arm seam. Youngster Luke Shenley got the ball rollingby taking the first wicket before an incredible spell of 9 overs, 3 Maidens, 3 wickets for just 21 runs from the evergreen James ‘Jambo’ Hunt. Jordan Eggar and Noah Harvey made further inroads with two wickets a piece as the visitor’s chase was all but over at 132 for 8. However, the lower order made the Acorns sweat as 62 from the number eight Elliot Lowe and a combined 32 from the final two batters got North Middlesex all the way to 204. Noah Harvey then dismissed Lowe in the final over to take his third wicket as Acton sealed a nine run victory under the stand in captaincy of Matthew Reeve.
The team also benefitted from the services of Mohammed Zahran who came to watch his son Frankie Zahran play but ended up on the field himself whilst filling in as a substitute fielder. He came in place of George Murphy who was unfortunately retired hurt whilst batting in the first innings.
Put in to bat away at Hampstead, Dan Wadell’s third team put up a fairly good batting display with Archie Mullen making 43 and Jaimin Chaudary smashing a quickfire 65 down at number seven as Acton posted 219 with six overs still left in their innings.
Acton were successful in their defence of the target in large part thanks to the off spin of Aryan Patel who removed six of the top seven batters to end on figures of 12 overs, 6 wickets for 51 runs. A couple of strikes from Chaudary helped the flow before one each from Simarjeet Singh and Siddharth Turaga sealed a 50 run victory for the third team.
It was a tough outing for the fourth team who were sent in to field against a Harrow Town side who amassed 223 at the end of their 45 overs. Chasing a large total, the Acorn’s batting crumbled under the pressure and unfortunately never got going with Michael McCann’s 12 not out the only man to reach double figures as Acton were swiftly dismissed with just 60 runs on the board.
Playing away for the first time this season, the Sunday side won the toss and chose to bat first on a tricky two paced surface against Perivale. Skipper Yousafzai was quickly made to regret his decision after falling for a third ball duck in the first over. Wickets fell quickly as Acton stumbled their way to 111 all out after 27 overs in large part thanks to a gritty 31 from Easa Malik.
An excellent first ball bouncer from Dishen Patel was taken at gully as the wheels were in motion for a tight defence of the small total. Two wickets for Yahya Asif and three for Raghavendra had Perivale team teetering at 60 for 8 before an excellent ninth wicket partnership saw the opposition home with five overs to spare.
Playing the postponed first game of the initial round of the Middlesex T20 cup saw Acton travel to Barnes on Wednesday evening. With traffic apparently delaying the arrival of skipper Kher, Matthew Reeve stepped up once again to toss and made the easy choice to bat first as only half the side were present. Openers Viren Nain and Yousafzai then took the attack to Barnes’ bowlers by making 104 for the opening partnership after just 7 overs. 20 ball forties from Kher and Reeve followed as Acton racked up a mammoth 232 in their 20 overs.
Forced to go hard from ball one, the Barnes chase briefly kept up with the rate, but regular wickets saw them eventually bowled out 100 runs short of the target as Sohaib Arif, Sam Harvey and Raghavendra took two wickets each.
Junior’s Player of the Week
Aran Thorne – 100 Not Out from 60 balls during the U13’s 50 run victory at London Tigers.
Senior’s Player of the Week
James Hunt - 3-21 & 24 for the 2nd XI
Fantasy League Top Performers
Aryan Patel – 194 Points
Jaimin Chaudhari – 155 Points
James Hunt – 103 Points
Noah Harvey – 70 Points