Round 10 Review…
Following last week’s washouts, the sun returned and so did four eager Acton Saturday teams alongside MDL and Middlesex Cup fixtures on the Sunday. Entering the second half of the league season, the first, second and third teams all look towards securing positions at the top of the table whereas the fourth eleven hope to turn their fortunes around and climb back up towards safety.
The first team hosted North London and chose to bat upon winning the toss. Another rapid opening stand of 67 gave Acton the perfect base but after Viren Nain fell for a run a ball sixty the rate slowed as captain Sahil Kher and Yasir Mehmood pushed the innings forward. Kher was eventually dismissed for 73 and with Zack Maile’s late order hits got the home side up to 228 for 9 declared.
Defending a par total on a slow wicket, Acton swiftly removed the opposition top order as North London found themselves 56 for 6. However, the slow nature of the pitch made run scoring hard but more crucially made wicket taking even harder as the visitors managed to hold out for a losing draw despite a couple of late strikes from Alex Brennan and Raghavendra Ravikumar who finished with three and four wickets respectively.
The high flying second eleven were sent in to bat away at Brondesbury as four batters chipped in with twenties around skipper Alex Manning’s half century, which meant Acton ended up posting 202 on a tricky batting surface.
The first six wickets fell to Acton’s teenage seamers (alongside two exceptional run outs from James Catlow Elliot) as Noah Harvey and Sohaib Arif took one each followed by a Luke Shenley double strike, which included a one handed screamer by Harvey at mid-on. Spinners, Nazim Munna and Jordan Eggar quickly got rid of the lower order before Tom Glenton Forsdike cleaned up the opposition number 11 as the Acorn’s returned to the club for a nice barbeque and with all 12 points in the bag.
Dan Wadell chose to field first as his third team travelled away to Crouch End and bowled out the home side for 176 after 45 overs. Mushi Rauf continued his form from 2 weeks prior as he opened the bowling and finished with figures of 22 Overs, 2 Maidens, 6 Wickets for 84 runs. Neil Lederman and Jaimin Chaudry took two a piece to complete the innings.
An early Acton wobble at 20 for 3 was eventually recovered to 102 for 4 with twenties from Chaudry and Wadell alongside a 36 from Sunil Rithik. However 102 for 4 quickly turned into 150 all out as the Acorn’s fell comfortably short in the end.
The fourth team were sent in to field against Hampstead and all was going to plan as a Saad Shah’s five wicket haul alongside a wicket for Simranjeet Singh had reduced the opposition to 93 for 6. However, an exceptional 197 run partnership for the 7th wicket got the home side to 286 for 6 declared, including and unbeaten 130 from Alex Humphreys and 76 not out from Arjit Jay.
With a tall task in front of them, Acton started not too badly with a pair of twenties from openers Kuntal Parikh and Mark Maksic. This was very short lived when Alex Lang took 7 wickets for 13 runs inside 9 overs as the Acorn’s were bowled out for just 111.
The MDL side were sent in to bat first away at Harrow under the captaincy of Miles Murphy. 63 from Rakib Hossain and 34 not out from Zak Yardley got Acton to a score of 185 after 40 overs.
With Harrow in a hurry to chase down the total, the home side lost regular wickets and continued motoring towards the target, eventually reaching it inside 30 overs but eight wickets down.
Acton’s love affair with the Middlesex Cup continued on Sunday as they travelled to North Middlesex to contest in the quarter final against the Premier League frontrunners. Having been sent in to bat, it started in the worst way possible as Viren Nain was strangled down the leg side from the first ball of the game. Fromer Acorn, Divyanshu Bhartiya’s double strike then removed captain and vice-captain, Sahil Kher and Huzaifa Yousafzai before Glenton Forsdike and Ravikumar picked out fielders after failing to put away loose deliveries. Tushar Patel’s aggressive 67 from 59 balls had held one end up before he was caught at cover with the visitors 117 for 5. Noah Harvey and Sohaib Arif stitched a partnership together, before some late hitting from Alex Brennan got Acton to 215 all out.
On a tough deck, the Noth Middlesex batters came out hard which in the end proved to be their undoing. Sam Harvey removed Bhartiya for a duck in the first over, before an Arif double reduced the home side to 32 for 3. Noah Harvey’s triple strike then ripped out the middle order before spin twins Brennan and Ravikumar mopped up the tail to give Acton a convincing 106 run victory.
Player of the Week
Noah Harvey – 1 for 12 and 23* vs Brondesbury – 3 for 38 and 31* vs North Middlesex
Fantasy League Top Performers
Mushi Rauf – 195 Points
Sahil Kher – 118 Points
Raghavendra Ravikumar – 108 Points
Alex Manning – 96 Points
Alex Brennan – 95 points