Four wins from five for Trees

It was another fine weekend as Brentham’s 1s and 3s made it three league wins from three while there was also a victory for the 2s at Kenton. The 4s lost a low-scoring affair away at Twickenham while the Sunday XI beat Kensington and Chelsea at the Brentham Club.

Fresh from his match-winning hundred last weekend, Preet Patel was again Brentham 1s star with the bat, his 67 the mainstay of Brentham’s 198 all-out in 44 overs against South Hampstead at the Brentham Club. Alongside Aadil Khan (45) and Saad Rehmann (27), Brentham recovered from 3/2 to reach 142/3 before a flurry of wickets reduced The Trees to 167/8. However, the last two wickets put on 31 to drag Brentham up towards the 200 mark.

In reply, South Hampstead started cautiously, but, once Faiz Khan removed their opener with the score on 19, the wickets began to fall. Faiz (2-18), Zaraq Nazir (2-40), Usman Maqbool (1-26), and Atif Shah (1-25) reduced them to 75/7. A 47-run eighth wicket partnership threatened to get the visitors back into the game but Preet (3-14) returned to mop up the tail and wrap up a 49-run win.

Vish Patel’s 2s bounced back from last weekend’s narrow defeat to Barnes with a fine chase away at Kenton. The home side looked well set for a big score when they reached 160/3 but Harry Marston (4-39) and Tomek Tsang (2-29) ran through the lower order to restrict the home side to 198/9 from their 45 overs.

In reply, Abbas Ilyas (34) and Rohit Khullar (24) got the chase off to a steady start. When they both fell, followed quickly by Jaz Rehal (0), it was up to Tomek to shine with the bat. His 74*, ably supported by Dhiraj Khullar (28) and Hasam Uddin (12), saw Brentham home with an over, and four wickets, to spare.

For the 3s, James Hitchcock (main picture) played a captain’s innings, his 101 the backbone of Brentham 265/8 against Ealing. That sort of score looked a million miles away when Ealing reduced The Trees to 86/6 inside 20 overs. However, James and Chris Jones (66*) put on 162 in 24 overs to turn the tide of the game. James brought up his 100 with his 14th 4 of the innings, to go with two sixes, while Chris’s knock included 11 boundaries.

As has been the case all season, Ciaran Brett (4-23) and Ayaz Khan (3-31) then blew away the top order to leave Ealing 55/8. The tail proved harder to knock over as Ealing dragged their innings out into the 43rd over before eventually being bowled out for 174.

Our only defeat on Saturday came for the 4s as they narrowly lost a low-scoring affair on a spicy deck against Twickenham. 12 batsmen fell in single figures as 20 wickets went down for just 249 runs. With the ball for Brentham, Mohsin Hassan (4-20) and Simon Price (3-33) reduced Twickenham to 15/3 and then 83/6 batting first. A stout eighth-wicket stand of 31 took the hosts past 100 but the tail was removed quickly as Twickenham finished on 129.

In reply, none of Brentham’s top seven got past 14 as the wicket continued to misbehave. Batting at eight, Mohsin gave Krushna Kerai’s side hope with 32 but nobody else could stay with him as The Trees eventually fell just nine runs short of victory.

On Sunday, Immy Raza’s 3-9 saw the Sunday XI to a two-run victory over Kensington and Chelsea at the Brentham Club. Batting first, Brentham’s total of 204 was built around plenty of contributions at the top of the order. Atif Shah (34), Damhiru Wijensinghe (28), Mohsin Hassan (20), and Jaidev Pindoria (22) all ably supported Derrick Roper’s top score of 46.

The away side were out of the blocks quickly in reply but wickets for Jaidev Pindoria (1-16), Vinay Khetia (2-34), and Hemen Mehta (1-29) kept their innings in check. Immy then came on to rattle through the tail as The Trees held on for a nail-biting victory.