Rain spoils the day as 2s were on course for a famous win
Hillhead 2s won the toss and elected to bowl first. With the ground on the damp side and not knowing what the wicket would churn up, this seemed to be the favourable choice and one that played to the 2s strengths.
Partick, playing at their home ground, made a tentative start. The ball skipping nicely through to the wicket keeper at times, there was definite bounce in the wicket.
Sneehan Das was the first of the bowlers to make the breakthrough. Building up the pressure with a series of dots, bowling in really good areas and mastering the art of “line and length”, R. Mirza Ahmed spooned one up into the sky, which James Thornhill gratefully clutched at after a brief juggle. Partick rebuilt and after some loose bowling, gifting free runs in the form of extras, the pressure eased. Up stepped Gowtham Kathiravan, and after taking some time to find his range, bowled a beautiful yorker ball, firing into middle stump. 2 brings 3, as they say, and Das got another with Thornhill taking the catch yet again. Last week it was the Das-Forbes bowling catching combo; this week, it was Das-Thornhill. And just that like that, wicket number 4 arrives with the pressure mounting on Partick – J. Williams was run out by some excellent fielding work by G. Adarkar – straight into the gloves of R. Mohammed and off came the bails. Z. Clayburn was the next of the Partick batters to fall; Das striking again by catching Clayburn LBW.
Partick had been blown away with some great pressure applied by the Hillhead bowlers and fielders, leaving them 61/5 after 16 overs. The momentum was well and truly in Hillhead’s favour.
Partick managed to add some more runs on the board before the fall of the next wicket. The ball was handed over to G. Adarkar who had never bowled for Hillhead 2s before but the gamble paid dividends and more!
Adarkar rose to the challenge and bowled a great line and length, the ball swinging away and coming through at some speed. G. Etheridge, who batted determinedly, got a thick edge on a teasing ball outside off, and Alex Bell remained focused and managed to gather the spinning ball into his grasp. Adarkar wasn’t going to settle with that though – A. Carswell, groundsman of West and Hillhead (and danger man!), had reached 12 and decided it was time to hit. Adarkar had other ideas! Carswell came down the wicket, looking to capitalise, and Adarkar bowled a shorter ball, outside off, which found the edge and Rammy willingly took a textbook catch behind the stumps. Adarkar went on to claim 2 more wickets (all catches) and P. Bartlett taking the other. Well bowled Ganu and more of that for next weekend please!
Partick 112 A.O. (30.5)
A. Yilapavanam 16, A. Carswell 12, R. Mirza Ahmed 11
G. Adarkar 4/9 (5.5), S. Das 3/21 (10)
Play resumed very shortly after Patrick’s innings due to teas not being ready (and with one eye on the forecast for later, with rain expected later in the afternoon). The target 113 in 50 overs. Hillhead would have bitten your arm off for that at the start of the match. However, we knew it wouldn’t be easy batting on that wicket and that rain would likely not be kind to us.
P. Bartlett and S. Kumar took to the crease to start off the 2s batting innings. S. Kumar fell for 1 in the 4th over and H. Aqeel for 2 in the 6th. Bowled and out LBW, respectively.
With Bartlett and Thornhill at the crease and with plenty of batting still to come, there was no panic in the Hillhead dressing room. The forecasted rain sure enough did come and despite it stopping just after 4:30pm – having come off the field initially at 3pm – the ground was too wet to play safe cricket in and even though a final decision on the game was left until 5:30pm, the game was ultimately abandoned.
Hillhead 17/2 (7) *
P. Bartlett 7*, H. Aqeel 2, S. Kumar 1
S. Kadavath 2/5 (3), G. Etheridge 0/12 (4)
MATCH ABANDONED
Player of the Match this week was deservedly awarded to Ganesh Adarkar who bowled incredibly well, showing us all what he can do with the ball, with mightily impressive figures of 4/9 (5.5). An honourable mention goes to Snehaan Das who was very impressive with the ball again, exhibiting fine figures of 3/21 (10). A massive shame to miss out on the opportunity for a famous win against Partick due to rain conquering all. However, some great positives to take from it as it was the best we have fielded as a team this season so far – the intensity, the execution of fielding, and the awareness in the field were all spot on. Bowling wides and giving away too many extras still proves to be our Achilles heel. 51 extras in 30.5 overs being too many is a big understatement. If we vastly reduce these we will put ourselves in an even better position in games. Hypothetically, take the extras away and have Partick all out for 61, potentially start batting sooner and this could have changed the outcome of this game from abandoned to a win given the greater chance of beating the rain too!
The 2s host Bothwell next Saturday. We are getting stronger and stronger as the season progresses and wins will come if we keep doing the basics right and do not overcomplicate our game. Another chance for an impressive win against a team around the top of our league currently; let’s hope we only have Bothwell to beat on Saturday and not the rain too!
