A good start to the season for the 2’s.

After last season’s shenanigans it was no surprise that the first game up was against Southgate Compton. Fortunately there was no hint of trouble under the watchful eyes of the Southgate Compton’s usual umpire and Mill Hills’ Richard Downes. This was a toss I wanted to win, so naturally I lost it, but to my surprise the SC skipper put us in to bat, as he had done the previous year. Our usual openers, Zaf Basit and Lee Crocker strode out to the crease in the watery May sunshine on a damp looking pitch that was likely to improve as the afternoon went on. Unfortunately, Lee strode back fairly rapidly, having been bowled through the gate by SC opening bowler Fawad Khan for 1 (4/1). Pete Jaffe came in at 3 and looked in good nick, driving well, though the outfield was particularly slow and several shots which had 4 written all over them ended up as 2’s and Pete ran a 3 for the first time this millennium. Zaf had also been looking comfortable until he gloved one to the keeper to give Khan his second wicket (35/2). Pete was given out LBW for 18 by the SC umpire after perhaps some overuse of the big stride and the front pad to give Khan his third wicket (40/3). Newcomer Greg Vaughan was joined by Naz Asif and whilst Greg looked calm and controlled, Naz took a big swipe at his first ball and could easily have been out caught, which would have been a shame considering what followed. With Greg pushing the ball around comfortably, Naz started to tuck into the bowling as only Naz can. Greg was very unfortunate to be out caught on 7 by a wonderful one handed catch over the shoulder running backwards (73/4). Number 5 batsman Jonny Gahan initially looked extremely uncomfortable against the Chalky-esque bowling of Adam Frame, but settled in and the pair proceeded to dismantle the slow bowling of Frame and Dave Malleson. The score raced along at about 7 an over for the next 24 overs to take the score past 100, 150 and 200, with Naz reaching 100 and Jonny passing 50 in the process. Jonny was eventually out caught for 64 with the score on 242, ending a wonderful 5th wicket partnership of 169. Not having the heart to deny Sanket a bat after such a long wait, the declaration was delayed for just long enough for Sanket to record the first duck of the season, leaving Naz on 131 not out and the total on 252/6 from 46 overs, leaving SC 54 overs in reply.

SC served up one of the best teas we’ve had for a long while to set us up for their innings. As is something of a tradition, we started with the old ball and spin twins Sanket and George. Sanket’s first over produced a double bouncing pea rolling nightmare of a ball which veteran Keith Walker was unable to keep out, much to everyone’s embarrassment. Still, a wicket is a wicket and SC were 1/0. The young incoming batsman Sam Brazier proceeded to tuck into the mixture of good balls, long hops and full tosses to push the score onto 48 before pace bowler Raheel Zaman, who had replaced Sanket, produced a beauty to peg back his middle stump for a confident 35 (48/2). Opener Dan Vanniasingham had been blocking at the other end and was joined by Adam Frame who blocked his end. The next 17 overs produced a mere 31 runs of Test match style inactivity with Raheel and Naz bowling tightly and the SC batsmen only played at the loosest of loose balls. Frame was finally ran out by an excellent throw from Raheel and a lovely take by bowler Adil Mehmood, having made 4 runs (79/3 from 30 overs). Fawad Khan brought an immediate change of style, taking a wild swing at a beauty from Sanket to give Pete Jaffe a dolly of a catch at first slip (79/4). Vanniasingham was continuing his stubborn resistance whilst number 6 batsman Kashif Masood batted effectively to push the scoring rate up, with 57 runs coming from the next 10 overs. A couple of catches were dropped and it was beginning to look like a draw was on the cards with only 13 overs left before George tossed one up for Masood to hole out to Raheel at deep midwicket (136/5). Flavell yorked the new batsman in the following over (136/6) to bring in the SC captain David Brandon. Vanniasingham was finally out LBW to Naz for 62 in the 45th over (149/7) and for the third time a second wicket fell for no score, Rahul Patel bowled by a beauty from Naz which nipped back and tickled the bail off the top of leg stump (149/8). Raheel bowled Arif in the following over (154/9) before Naz bowled Brandon with a full toss to complete the victory with 4 overs to go.

Conclusions
Some excellent batting from Naz (131*) and Jonny (64) set up an early declaration which nearly proved not early enough. It’s a good job that games this year are 100 overs, as we used 96 of them to get the result. It’s extremely hard to get batsmen out when they don’t want to get out and aren’t interested in scoring runs! Apart from the two star batting performances, the whole team contributed to the win with promising debuts from Greg, Raheel and Adil. Next week will be a much sterner challenge, just down the road at Old Minchendenians against last years rivals Cockfosters.

Mill Hill Village IIs 30 points, Southgate Compton IIs 3 points.