Hillhead travelled the short distance across the river to Bellahouston Park and the weather was absolutely glorious. The gazebo was set up and the Hillhead Saltire was proudly hoisted.
Jim lost the toss and Victoria, not surprisingly as the wicket looked an absolute road and had played very well on Tuesday night, elected to bat first.
Krushnesh Patel and Kesh Soni opened the bowling again for Hillhead, hoping to get off to a better start than they both had the weekend before, and they did just that. Soni picking up his first wicket in his very first over. He soon after cleaned up the next two wickets reducing Victoria to 18/3 in the 8th over. Patel at the other end bowled tightly and was unfortunate to not pick up a wicket himself
Qayyum and T. Sadiq rebuilt well and punished the bad ball which were occurring a tad too frequently for Hillhead’s liking! Jared Bartlett eventually managed to dismiss Sadiq (36) with a good catch from Prayag Gandi (“Prince”) on his Hillhead debut, thus breaking a 97 run partnership. Score 115/4 in the 21st over.
Ryed Syez came in #6 and played the spin of Bartlett and Darshan Chatrathi well by being aggressive when required but also respecting the good balls. Bartlett picked up his second wicket of the game tempting Qayyum (61) into a big slog sweep out to cow completed with a quite spectacular catch by Alex Hawley out near the HCC gazebo! 131/5 in the 25th over. Chatrathi was rewarded for his persistence with appealing for LBWs when one was finally awarded! The two before must have been extremely close, especially the one where the batter stood on the ball in front of middle stump… 136/6.
Gowtham Kathiravan coming back for his second spell this time down the slope bowled a corker of a delivery which castled Ryed Syez (43,) 197/7 after 41 overs. S.Shah (22) had a thrash at the end with the tail giving Victoria a good score of 236, helped by 35 wides! Hillhead had done a champion job of pulling it back what could easily have been a score of 250+ at one point.
Kesh Soni got his very first senior cricketing 5-for which was very much deserved!
Victoria 236/10 off 47.1 overs
Qayyum 61, A. Ryed Syez 43, T. Sadiq 36.
Soni 5/26, J. Bartlett 2/44
In reply HCC opened with J. Lindley-Dawe and K. Patel, Victoria’s opening bowlers struggled with the left hand, right hand combination with lots getting thrown down the leg side for multiple wides. When they did eventually find their lines though they bowled some absolute jaffers and were a tad unlucky not to find the edge!
Patel (6) was the first wicket fall caught off the dangerous Khan, 20/1 after 9 overs. This brought debutant Gandi to the crease, his first 3 scoring shots were all 4s. This lad really can bat. Together with Lindley-Dawe they batted well and went along at 6s having a partnership of 64 until Gandi (30), following pulling up badly with cramp then got dismissed trying to play an expansive shot! 84/2 off 19 overs. Hugo Longrigg again batting at #4 following his 50 last week struggled to adjust to the pace of the Bellahouston wicket and wasn’t his fluid self. Lindley-Dawe however at the other end was making use of coming down the wicket sending the ball over the bowler’s head for some wonderful straight drives.
At drinks Hillhead were 103/2 in a great position to chase down the total of 237. 134 required off 150 balls on a good batting wicket with a lightning-fast outfield. Confidence was high.
Lindley-Dawe brought up his 50 but then went for one drive too many and top edged it bringing a flamboyant one handed catch from backward point. 147/3 after 32 overs. Longrigg (24) fell only a couple overs later. 154/4 after 34 overs.
Hillhead required 83 runs off 96 balls, however with 2 new batters at the crease had the momentum shifted towards Victoria? Alex Hawley, and Arnav Mehta batting together for the first time looked like they’d come through the juniors together such was how they complimented each other in the partnership.
Hawley was dabbing and running hard and Mehta was playing drives with the most silk probably seen at Bellahouston since the last time the Pope visited! These 2 stayed together until the end with Mehta (59*) scruffily hitting the winning run! Hawley’s 21* comprised of 16 singles showing how much he helped keeping Mehta on strike.
Hillhead 237/4 off 46.2 overs
Mehta 59*, J. Lindley-Dawe 52, P. Gandi 30.
A very good run chase and the first win on the board for the lads!
A very special thank you to the legend that is Bernie Mitchell for scoring for the whole innings on his own (with help from HCC lads of course!) Victoria had turned up without a scorer, a scorebook or a tablet to score on…
