Actonians Cricket Club

Scorecard

Old Isleworthians IV v Actonians Cricket Club 4th XI on Sat 24 Jun 2023 at 12.30pm
Actonians Cricket Club Won by 4 wickets

Match report By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
Emerson’s poem that celebrated the birth of american democracy has a sufficiently stirring quality to memorialise the uncertain course that the revolutionaries set out on and the world altering effects of the seemingly small act of rebellion. It is unclear how the American myth would have taken shape if instead of Emerson they had been chronicled by Actonians great wordsmith Kabir Malhotra. When discussing one of the two partnerships that ended up deciding the run chase in our favour he remarked that “you did hit one shot hard”. A scholar who favours Hemingwayesque minimalism, Malhotra perfectly encapsulates the essence of my innings and the run chase. I did hit the ball hard once and that was basically enough.
Unlike the sparsity and directness of Malhotra’s prose my style is much more florid and less linear. However some concessions should be made to chronology. Match reports have not yet descended into full post structuralism and so I will begin with the first innings.
Ali lost the toss (I think although given the opening three paragraphs the actual events of the match are more of a framing device than a verifiable historical event) and was asked to bowl. Sandeep got things off to a rollicking start with a caught and bowled in the first over. Nathan quickly snared the number 3 and we officially considered it a good toss to lose. The pitch, with its pronounced slope, was doing bits and we had a bowling attack capable of exploiting sideways movement.
We also have a teenage prodigy in Maan who bowls his offspin with fizz and the kind of accuracy that makes it look like he is a 45 year old in a teeangers body. His spell led to one of the most rarely seen events in Middlesex league 5B, actual regulation cricket dismissals. He twice in a row found the outside edge and both times the chances were superbly gobbled up by Ronit at second slip.
After Lord Whear and Maan had suffocated their middle order it was left to Kabir to bulldoze his way through the lower order with his trademark skiddy swing bowling bamboozling 3 victims and if it weren’t for some dubious umpiring and shonky catching he might have had more. We finally polished them off for 158. A reasonable total but not one that didn’t feel in reach.
The chase started with Sandeep plundering some early boundaries and Ben giving him steady support however we fell into a bit of a wobble with 3 quick wickets lost at around the 40 over mark. However into the breach stepped your humble correspondent. When batting with Suj, a man who hits the ball so powerfully he has his own chant, I knew that what was required was to hold an end and let Isleworthians flounder against the boredom of watching me bat.
Mine and Sujs partnership steadied the shit and his lusty hitting got the board moving. When he fell the captain strode to the crease and produced an innings of class and elegance as well as steel (authors note Ali edits my pieces before publishing them). When I was undone by a ball that even the bowler knew very little about Lord Whear helped us over the line with some glorious displays of strokeplay (authors note it never hurts to make allies amongst the peerage).
In the end a comfortable victory where we outplayed our opponents in all three dimensions. A heartening day out which takes us up to joint 2nd in the table. Next week we return to bodders against a Twickenham side on the same points as us in what promises to be a game worthy of more Malhotra poetry.

Old Isleworthians IV Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 18w 8b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
30
158 (44.1 overs)		     
Atul Sathe ct  R Bhatia b M Seth 34
Orangzaib Zaman ct  S Khamb b S Khamb 0
Shoaib Ali ct  B Moerdyk b N Mehaffy 6
Shafqat Akmal b  M Seth 18
Kranti Yadav b  K Malhotra 25
Aqib Karmalkar ct  R Bhatia b M Seth 0
Azfar Farooqi b  K Malhotra 12
Romin Sutar ct  A Slaughter b K Malhotra 1
Kashif Khan ct  S Khamb b S Khamb 21
Satnam Chauhan b  D Whear 11
Faizal Muhammed Not Out  0

Actonians Cricket Club 4th XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sandeep Khamb10.0134217.003.40
Nathan Mehaffy6.0218118.003.00
Kabir Malhotra6.0131310.335.17
Maan Sheth12.052939.672.42
David Whear9.1136136.003.93

Actonians Cricket Club 4th XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
5nb 12w 7b 3lb 
for 6 wickets
27
162		        
Sandeep Khamb ct  A Sathe b F Muhammed 30 2
Benjamin Moerdyk b  K Yadav 7 1
Hitesh Patel b  F Muhammed 3
Andrew Jones b  O Zaman 21
Ronit Bhatia lbw  K Yadav 6 2
Sujan Jesuraja ct  R Sutar b S Chauhan 14
Alistair Slaughter Not Out  28 1
David Whear Not Out  26
Nathan Mehaffy  
Kabir Malhotra  
Maan Sheth  

Old Isleworthians IV Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Shafqat Akmal7.013300.004.71
Kashif Khan5.002700.005.40
Kranti Yadav7.011728.502.43
Faizal Muhammed6.0024212.004.00
Aqib Karmalkar1.001400.0014.00
Satnam Chauhan4.0019119.004.75
Orangzaib Zaman2.0014114.007.00
Azfar Farooqi0.10400.0024.00