Puranik in pure nick as Old A’s storm to Indoor League victory
A dominant bowling and fielding display ensured that Old Actonians CC picked up their first silverware since 2009 in the Brentside Indoor League final on Thursday 5th April after an explosive 41 not out from Raj Puranik had stunned opposition Wilkinson’s Way.
Raj’s innings included two sixes off the last two balls of the Old A’s innings as a total of 105 from 10 overs was comfortably enough to clinch victory. Wilkinson’s struggled to 70 all out thanks to a valiant effort from the last man standing but the intimidating opponents could not cope with Actonians’ discipline.
After Old Actonians’ ‘A’ team edged a competitive semi-final against the Bs, both sides watched a slanging match with a vague resemblance to game of cricket to decide the final opponent. Middlesex Championship GWR, early season favourites for the cup, set Wilkinson’s Way an imposing 109 to win – perhaps surprising their opponents, whose big hitting had caused stirs in the group stages.
Unfortunately it was Wilkinson’s big mouths that made the crowd stand up and take notice during the run chase, as time after time watching batsmen would jump from the benches to confront the umpire about his decisions. GWR – formed of experienced outdoor league cricketers – despaired in the field while the umpire was even forced to call the league’s organiser to double check certain rules, such was the intimidation from the batting side. When one of Wilkinson’s (rather shapely) batsmen resorted to threatening a GWR bowler with his bat, many fielders were ready to concede the match. “Let them fight among themselves,” remarked one GWR veteran.
Fortunately the shambles was finally brought to a close, well after the scheduled finish, though unfortunately the result was victory for Wilkinson’s Way, with a series of sixes clinching victory.
Team effort
Nevertheless, the scenes in this match left Old Actonians more determined than ever to win the tournament, and to do so playing cricket in the right way. Indeed, Sameer Butt – previously unaware that the final was being straight played after the semis – took one for the team by postponing a date once we had qualified. After the first semi-final was over, he sped down the Greenford Avenue and returned before the final with clean shirt, towel, shower gel and aftershave in hand.
The lucky lady’s words upon being told she’d have to wait two more hours at Pizza Hut cannot be repeated in print so as not to offend younger readers.
Raj was by far the star of the A’s innings, with a useful contribution from Sameer (keen to impress someone?) and intelligent batting in the last few overs from Piri and Sandip Patel edging the Gunnersbury Drive-based side past the century mark.
Wilkinson’s Way attempted a bizarre and ultimately fruitless reversal of the batting order, as tight overs from Malik, Sandip, Piri and Raj left them on just 22 after four overs. The pressure caused by tight bowling and fielding was too much and early wickets fell. Unable to rely on their usual tactic of hitting frequent boundaries (only available on the back wall), Wilkinson’s were forced to look for singles off the sides. Used in combination with sensible running, this is usually a reasonably risk-free way off accumulating threes (one for hitting the wall and two for running between the wickets), but the opposition were unable to change strategy to keep the runs ticking over in the early overs. When they did, their efforts usually ended in a run-out, and indeed Wilkinson’s most dangerous batsman was run out having barely faced a ball.
Despite Olly doing his best to make a game of it by gifting the Way 20 off his over, at the half way point the batting side still only had 42. And once keeper Sameer had bowled a cheap over of slow right arm, though, the run rate was unreachable. The last man for Wilkinson’s – allegedly a recruit from Uxbridge’s 2nd XI – scored a classy 30 on his own but never threatened Old Actonians’ total and was eventually caught off the ceiling (the indoor equivalent of hitting the ball down cow corner’s throat).
Cue wild celebrations as Old A’s first foray into indoor cricket ended in well-deserved success.
Earlier in the evening the Actonians’ ‘B’ team had fallen just short of the ‘A’s total of 80, thanks to superb bowling by Piradeepan. Sameer, Old A’s most consistent batsman throughout the tournament, again shone in the ‘A’ team’s innings.
Both sides had qualified for the semi-finals after finishing in the top four of the five week league stage.
Early season momentum
Well done to Chris Falconer (‘A’ team captain), Steve Smith (‘B’ team captain), Josh Jayakar, Sameer Butt, Piradeepan Sivanathan, Sandip Patel, Ali Slaughter, Raj Puranik, Richard Thompson, Khalid Malik, Olly West, Roheet Gupta, Tommy Byrne, Bilal Hussain, Asad Hussain, Steve Cox, Andy West and Charley Wright, who all played in the tournament. Special thanks to Smithanator for collecting availability and organising selection.
As the guys who played in the tournament will testify, the games were lots of fun and – added to the novelty of playing actual cricket matches while it was cold and dark outside – the victory gives us great momentum going into the season. A number of players have already got back the taste for competitive cricket and will go into the season feeling confident they can rip through batting line-ups, create pressure in the field, and score quick runs when required. (We’ll see how scoring BIG runs goes during the outdoor season.)
Although the indoor game is seen by many as something of a cowboy’s sport, it rewards the same skills that we need to be improving for the outdoor season: playing straight, bowling a tight line and length, and sharp fielding. The experience should give us an advantage over many of our rivals at the start of this season.
Perhaps more importantly, the tournament allowed 2012’s drinking season to get off to an earlier start than normal – though a better Thursday evening pub than the Duke of Kent may be in order next year...
In my entirely personal opinion, highlights of the tournament were Sameer and Raj’s batting, and the bowling of Piradeepan and Josh. (Yes, you’ve read that right: Josh Jayakar knows how to bowl, and quite well it seems.)
Here’s hoping we can defend our title next season and, now we have a taste for it, see more members taking part.
Before Thursday, our last senior trophy had been the 2009 2nd Division Championship of the 1987 Cricket League.
You can read a shorter version of this report on page 45 of April 20th’s Ealing Gazette.
Olly West