Hale v. Gentlemen of West London

Sunday 27 September, Hale CC. Gents won toss. Sunny, 21C

Won by 36 runs

The 2009 Gents produced one last great performance to end the best of all seasons in ecstasy. Suman Rudru, with his highest club score and Ahsan Iqbal posted superb fifties and captain Hemin Patel carded his first five-wicket haul. Chasing a mammoth 248 to win, Hale were in control at 184/2, needing 64 runs off 9 overs before Giles and Griffiths, who had hit the first ton of 2009 and the first against The Gents since 2006, fell in quick succession. Hemin Patel then induced a collapse in the twilight as Hale subsided to 211 all out. Victory was thus The Gents’ by 36 runs but it was a close run thing. This was a tense game spiced up a treat by umpiring controversy in the second innings. Though 458 runs were scored, only five batsmen made it into double figures and three batsmen accounted for nearly three-quarters of the runs scored off the bat. There were two century stands, contrasting but both brilliantly executed, and no fewer than 80 extras.

Hale have close affiliations with Hampshire league cricket and brought in a few Crown Taverners plus Comfort, the U.17 Farnham colt who had batted so spectacularly in the tour match. It was therefore a rather different and perhaps stronger Hale than usual, though stalwarts Giles, Spreadborough, Calvert and the Greatwoods were present and correct. As Hale gave the wicket a last mow and painted the crease lines, The Gents surveyed the ground, with its pronounced north to south slope and wicket pitched 45 yards from the upper northerly boundary and 70 yards from the southerly. Ornithologists revelled in the screech and squawk of the coffee-coloured Tourette cock bird in full glory. It is quite astonishing that a Government-approved political incorrectness alarm does not sound every time it gives full throat to its song.

The Gents won the toss and batted first on a beautiful autumn afternoon. Sachin Desai cover-drove the first ball of the day up the hill for four, the ball traversing the dry outfield in a jiffy. This was clearly going to be a high-scoring game. Indeed, the Hale supporters reckoned it was a 200 wicket. Larby then got one to move away to take Desai’s edge in the second over but against some challenging bowling, which included a few bouncers, Gilkes hung around while Rudru looked in touch from the word go. While Gilkes’s innings included much swishing he was effective in seeing off the openers until Larby bowled him with his penultimate ball.

Shu Desai had made 2 when he was unluckily felled by a Spreadborough bouncer, occasioning bruising to his neck if not his pride. Retired hurt, his name now proudly appears in one of the club’s great partnerships, as Ahsan Iqbal came in and went berserk for 16 overs. Off the mark first ball with a straight six off Greatwood, he went on to club four more and five fours on his way to 73. Two of his maxima were over the longest boundary and one was estimated by the secretary, who paced it out during the tea interval, to have been a 75 yard hit. Iqbal dominated the stand (73 out of 97 added while he was at the crease) but Rudru outscored him with his brave, marathon knock of 28 overs, during which he hit 16 fours and was hit several times. He was dropped twice, a toughie that MacCaig diving to his right at second slip could not quite cling on to and a nasty skier to long-on when he was 49, but Iqbal’s brutal innings was chanceless, mainly because only a madman would have tried to intercept some of his harder hits. It was hugely entertaining.

This was batsmanship of the highest order, though Hale did not help themselves by conceding too many extras. From 183/2 in the 29th. over, Gents blasted 64 more quick runs but lost five wickets in doing so. They felt good about themselves at half-time but an intelligence report had advised that Hale had lost a recent game by only one run chasing 263, so nobody was complacent. And The Gents who had toured recognised the Hale league irregulars, the chaps without the white and green shirts, and knew the damage they could inflict.

Tea was taken in the Ball and Wicket pub and as play resumed shadows were already creeping towards the wicket. The light would be barely playable towards the end of Hale’s innings, the product of a late start and more than six overs’ worth of bowling extras. Comfort struck three fours in the first two overs before driving to Kalidindi at deep mid-off in the third and when Iqbal blasted out MacCaig in the next for a duck, The Gents were cock a hoop. Cue Giles and Griffiths, entering stage left. Their third-wicket stand was the third-highest in all Gents games (after London Owls’ 239 and Village XI’s 206), although curiously not a record for the wicket. Steve Giles played as he did at Kingston, watchful and defiant, while Andy Griffiths, Crown Taverners’ Saturday league opening batsman, was compact, talented and powerful. His cover drives to the short boundary were past the fielders in a flash. This stand tested the mettle of The Gents, who just failed to rise to similar challenges posed by the best two sides previously played this season, Salix and Crown Taverners. Runs came at the required rate, the odd quiet over being followed by one or two boundaries in the next.

The partnership went inexorably on and on, the batsmen being particularly severe on Kalidindi and Sciberras, though Rudru complemented the economy of the opening pair. The fielding was, however, holding up well. Gilkes and the ball were as opposite magnetic poles and saved according to Inkollu 40 runs but there were no weak links. The byes total was unflattering to Shu Desai but most were the result of grubbers about which he could do little. The Gents needed a breakthrough but one refused to come until Giles poked a slower ball, a full toss, from the returning Iqbal to the captain at short extra-cover. Giles stood his ground amid wild celebration as the umpire, on appeal from the batsman, gave a No ball for aerial violation. After some brief flapping, the game continued.

The Gents were galvanized by this. The fielding became even sharper and within a couple of overs Giles was run out going for a second by a smart throw from mid-on Kalidindi into bowler Iqbal, who flicked the ball back on to the stumps. The stand of 169 had at last been broken but there were still 9 overs left for Hale to get the 64 needed. Lo and behold if in the next over Ravi did not bowl Griffiths middle stump, to much hollering. One noise, which Sachin Desai later described as “Stan Laurel in a panic” was identified as emanating from Suman Rudru, who was practically convulsed with emotion. Griffiths had hit 17 fours and three sixes, one of which rivalled Sumit Kumar’s monster against Northfields. Off Sciberras, it cleared long on, boundary and scout hut. He departed to handshakes of congratulations from four Gent fielders.

Hemin Patel, who had made his bowling changes with great acuity, then cleaned up the tail as the light faded, bowling three, catching one off his own bowling and winning the game when Larby swung high and was caught off a top edge by Shu Desai running round. Hemin confessed after the game that he was regretting the lack of a third pace bowler but in the end this was immaterial. This was an important win against strong opposition.