OPCC Match Reports for 3rd – 7th August 2011
This was a (festival) week of what is described as ‘variable weather’. Most pitches were rain affected but this challenge brought some close finishes, and some not-so-close! In the League, the first team performed exceptionally well at Billericay without managing a win, and the third eleven had a most welcome win at Horndon on the Hill.
Earlier, the Cricket Week at Old Parks’ home was highly entertaining, with all games played in spite of the clouds. Friday in particular was a joy and saw Oakfield welcoming a number of old Old Parks and guests to play against a current squad, and thoroughly enjoy the evening too!
SNEL League
Old Parkonians 1st XI drew away at Billericay.
Old Parks batted first against Billericay and after losing two quick wickets, Haris Khan responded positively throughout an incredible innings of 127. Dave Rai scored a supportive 34 and Rushan Pandya made a brisk 59. However, all eyes were on Khan as he relentlessly smashed the Billericay bowlers to the boundary in an innings which propelled Parks to 275-7 from 52 overs.
Haris Khan was the most successful of the Old Parks bowlers too, and completed a wonderful all-round performance with figures of 16-4-63-4. Three were cleaned bowled. Baldeep Mann took the other wicket as Billericay were reduced to 105-5 before Hynes (62) and Charrington (54) played safe and kept their wickets intact. The match petered out into a draw with Billericay finishing on 214-5.
Old Parkonians 2nd XI lost at home to Billericay by 129 runs.
Old Parks won the toss and, given the rain affected wicket, confidently expected to bowl Billericay out with a strong bowling line-up. But somehow Billericay survived, more by luck than great batting, and were 69 for 2 off the first 20 overs. They were beaten time and again by some great bowling from Jayapragash (Jabba) Sivarajah (10-2-25-2) and young Jonathan Balakumar (7-2-22-0). Then pressure was added by Sachin Fing (14-3-48-2) with some good pressure bowling and by Ian Simpson’s (10-4-30-2) variation of pace (from slow medium to very slow!). Max Mukesh (5.5-1-24-3) extracted a lot of turn but Billericay’s opener hung on and then Childs played some late order big hitting strokes to reach 34 and took them to 191 all out, with no one quite able to explain such a total.
When Parks batted they lost an early wicket to Rayner who swung the ball and moved it off the turf to such affect that he then took four wickets in an over and finished with figures of 8-4-19-6. Contest over all bar the shouting. Parks were bowled out for 62. This was an embarrassing day where luck was nowhere to be found, but the performances of the day go to Billericay.
Old Parkonians 3rd XI won away at Horndon on the Hill by 2 wickets.
Horndon elected to bat first after winning the toss, and struggled to score runs on a green wicket which suited the seam bowlers well. They were all out for 118 in 33.1 overs. Taaha Naqvi's best ever figures of 7 wickets for 38 runs from 9.1 overs was the highlight of the innings. He was well supported by some excellent fielding, including five catches and a run out. Petts (37) and Hammond (33) batted well for Horndon.
In reply Old Parks suffered early blow as they lost Vikram Handa and Alan Bouquet within the first eight overs, but opening batsman Haaris Shah and the no 4 Richard Morgan batted cautiously until Shah was caught at mid wicket for 20. However, this brought Taaha Naqvi to the crease whereupon he starred with bat too, scoring a rapid 37. After he was out , Parks lost another 4 wickets in quick session, but managed to reach the target of 119 without further loss. Jasper was the pick of the bowler for Horndon with 3 for 44 runs in 8 overs but was unable to stop Parks (122-8 in 24.5 overs) winning by 2 wickets.
This was a very welcome win for Parks’ 3rd XI.
Old Parkonians 4th XI lost at home to Southend on Sea & EMT by 6 wickets.
Skipper Nick Weekes won his 11th toss out of 11 and chose to bat. After an early loss, Indy Bhatia (32), playing his first game of the season, and Dhruv Patel (53) put on a steady partnership of 49 for the 2nd wicket which provided a stable platform for the innings. There followed a quickfire contribution from Marc Friday - 24 from 14 balls - before another season's debutant, wicketkeeper Shuja Naqvi, anchored the close of the innings, finishing with 35 not out to take Parks to 211 for 8.
In reply, Southend got off to a quick start helped by some poor bowling and far too many extras. Once they realised that the victory target was achievable, the opening pair ran hard for every run they could get, at times the running appeared suicidal. But they got away with it aided by some sloppy fielding. Thanks to some dropped/missed catches and without any luck with LBW appeals, Southend had scored 180 before they lost their first wicket, one of their suicidal singles proving to be just that. Openers Kane (92) and Enderby (58) had taken full advantage. Old Parks did take another 3 wickets before Southend won, with man-of-the match Indy Bhatia taking 2 wickets for 55. The only other wicket taker was Prakash Seeralan, whose wicket came courtesy of the champagne moment of the match, a sharp catch in the gully above his head by Afshan Hasan!
Cricket Week
The Monday Bank Holiday game was reported last week.
Tuesday T20: Old Parks 150 - 3 (Ed Buxton and Hermes Solomonides both retired on 30) lost a close contest by 1 wicket to Cassowaries (152 – 9)
Wednesday: Old Parks 229-6 (Janagan Vijayanyathan 100 not out, Harry Markatis 40) lost to Old Victorians (230-2: Humphreys 118 not out) by 8 wickets.
Thusday T20: Old Parks 138 - 1 (Hermes Solomonides 94 not out) beat North Weald (136 – 6, Nick Thorpe 3-25) by 2 runs.
Friday: Old Parks v. Chairman’s Select XI
In this highly enjoyable festival climax, Chris Nutt’s select XI (204- 8: Ed Buxton 53, Ryan Hurst 48, Paul Warren 21 and 3 catches, Dave Tack 22, Tony Small 24; Amar Thanki 8-3-17-3,) managed a narrow win against the Old Parks (202 all out: Alan Bouquet 29, Vikram Handa 84 not out, Dilan Patel 21, Ibrahim Iqbal 28; Andrew Beaven 5.3-0-18-4, Ryan Hurst 7-1-18-3) by 2 runs.
Sunday
Both games were washed out on Sunday.
Old Parkonians A XI were away to Brentwood where the game was called off after 3 overs.
Old Parkonians B XI were at home where SMT scored 131-4 after 17.4 overs (Nav Kalley, Nick Thorpe, Ibrahim Iqbal and Tariq Jameel took a wicket each). But rain then casued abandonment.
Colts
Old Parks Under 15s lost a close T20 encounter away to South Woodford on Sunday by 3 runs.
South Woodford elected to bat first and got off to a steady start in spite of strong pace-bowling by Prakash Seeralan (conceding only 17 runs in his 4 overs). Vikram then bowled some a good pace as he took 2 wickets for in a spell of 4 overs for 25 runs. Old Parks then brought on Dhruv Patel (U13) and Paran Kalley (U13) both of whom bowled exceptionally well: Dhruv took 2 for 15 in 4 overs, and Paran gave away just 8 runs of 3 overs! South Woodford went on to finish their inning on 113-4.
For Parks, Vikram (20) opened with Rikin Patelwho went on to retire on 25. He was supported admirably by Zubayr Iqbal who made 21 before being run-out. But as the run-chase hotted up, wickets fell as Old Parks pushed the score closer to their target. Needing just 6 of the last 2 balls, Prakash was run-out for 16, leaving Paran Kalley and Abhiman needing just four to win of the last ball. Alas, Old Parks finished just 3 short on 110-6.
Old Parks U11s away at Epping on Sunday won by 74 runs.
A chance to introduce new players in the Under 11 team in a friendly match against Epping proved successful with a 74 runs win. Batting first Parks amassed 172 all out, with Eshun Kalley 21 and Ryan Karuna 25 not out being the top scorers.
In reply Epping were bowled out for 98 in the last over of the match. Ryan Karuna (2-1-4-2) and Eshun Kalley (3-0-13-2) followed their fine batting form with with the ball. Ronan Karuna (2-1-2-2) also took a brace of wickets.
Chris Nutt
Chairman
OPCC