3s get 1st victory of the season

The 3s were up against Totteridge Millhillians IV at the London Maccabi Vale Sports Club on a sunny day.

The skipper lost the toss and Totteridge decided to have a bowl.

James Thompson (5) and Piers Jenkins (15) got the innings started and the skipper scored 5 off of the first over. The first ball of the next over though, he was bowled off his legs to leave the Village 5-1. Inthi Mazeez (0) was next in and was watchful and steady whilst Piers at the other end looked in good touch as he started to find the boundary. In the 8th over, Inthi was next man out as he clipped one off his legs straight to square leg before Sanket Shah (25) joined Piers at the crease and before long there was a mix up running for 2 and Piers was run out, 28-3. Richard Stratford (8) making his debut for the Village was slow to get going but stayed with Sanket for 10 overs and began to find his feet. He would be next to go as he was bowled in the 19th over to leave the Village 51-4. Matt Hawkes (0) was next in but he was the next to go edging behind to the keeper. Mohamed Salahudeen (11) joined Sanket and dispatched one over for 10 before Sanket called a run and Mo was short of his crease as the keeper ran him out, 68-6. Farzan Dulker Nain (19) joined Sanket and he got into his stride by hitting a few boundaries but the 25th over would see the back of Sanket as he played on to his own stumps to be bowled. Alam Khan (0) was next in and then next out as he was bowled to leave the Village 88-8. Karan Gupta (2) another to make his debut was next in and he was also bowled by the Totteridge Millhillians skipper which left Harrison Arjan (14*) as the last man. He would hit 14 off of one over to push the score past 100 but Farzan was out in the 32nd over LBW as the Village were bowled out for 112.

Matt Hawkes (3-17) and Alam Khan (2-10) started the bowling and were on the money straight away as they did not give the batsmen a chance to settle. The first wicket would come in Hawkesy third over as he bowled the number 1 batsman and then Alam would follow suit as he bowled the next batsman, 6-2. Hawkesy would then get 2 wickets in an over both bowled as Totteridge would be reduced to 8-4 after 9 overs. Alam got his 2nd wicket courtesy of a catch from Sanket Shah at cover, 10-5 off of 10 overs. The number 6 and 7 batsmen for Totteridge would show some fight in the middle order to stop Hawkesy & Alam picking up any further wickets and started to get the scoreboard ticking. Inthi Mazeez (1-11) and Karan Gupta (2-12) replaced the 2 opening bowlers and kept the pressure on the batsmen, which brought about a run out as Hawkesy threw down the stumps to run out the Totteridge skipper. The next wicket would fall to Karan thanks to another catch by Sanket to leave Totteridge 39-7 and he would get his 2nd as he bowled the number 9 batsman with a low swinging yorker. It was left to Inthi to bowl the number 10 batsman as the innings finished on 52-9 as Totteridge only had 10 men.

An average batting performance with many mistakes and no one looking to see the innings through. We will need to bat a lot better if we are to be pushing for promotion. However, the bowling performance was again excellent with wickets falling in regular intervals and the pressure being kept on the batsmen. Matt Hawkes was the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets but Alam and Karan also bowled well to pick up 2 wickets apiece. The Village would move into 2nd place in the league.