Parliament Hill Fields, Sunday 30 June 2024.

St Anne’s Allstars 86-5 (19.3 overs: Pradosh Bose 49*; Danu Chandra 3-17) beat Alexandra Park CC 83 all out (John Byrne 23; Pradosh Bose 3-10; Phani Sainath 2-12; David Nandi 2-18) by 5 wickets.

Allstars Debut: Phani (Sai) Sainath

Report and photos by Sheahan Arnott

As I’m sure you all know, the earliest documented reference to Hampstead Heath dates back to to 986 when Aethelred the Unready granted land to the Abbot of Westminster.

Historians and linguists – especially linguistic historians – will tell you that Aethelred was not actually unready, but ill-advised. But I’d be surprised if he was perhaps as ill-advised as our efforts to get a game this week were.

We went through opponents like Liz Taylor going through husbands. We were not even sure whether there was an actual booking we could use at the venue. It rained on the morning of the game. And we had 9 players. I was wishing I was as ready and as well-advised as Aethelred.

I figured the deck would be a goat track, and – with some rain around – bowling first in a declaration game seemed to be our best path to getting a result.

I agreed with their skipper that we would bowl first, and – despite there only being 9 of us and then declining our request to borrow a fielder – I was still confident this was the right choice. And when David Nandi pitched two balls in the same place and we watched one soar past the batter’s eyes, and the other past his toes, I knew I’d made the right choice.

Pradosh Bose started the rot in his first over as Frank bunted an easy catch to Barathwaj Nagarajan at cover off a ball that lept. As I offered the traditional “bad luck mate”, I was met with a tirade along the lines of “the groundsman told us to use the other wicket chunter chunter chunter.”

Pretty graciously – if I say so myself – I offered their captain not only the chance to move to the recommended wicket, but also that the batsman dismissed could bat again. He graciously accepted, but we still got no sub fielder…

Pradosh and David bowled well – they challenged the bat, they made the most of the wicket and they barely bowled a loose ball between them. To say we had them not-many-for-5 at the end of their spells because of the pitch would be disingenuous.

Our new friend Sai, making his Allstars debut, came on bowling a little unconventionally, but effectively, with the batters struggling to score off him. In no time he had 2/12, and we had a drink with Alexandra Park 55/7, having recovered somewhat from 32/6.

I removed the obdurate Mo Bajaj first ball after drinks, and some good bowling from Hywel Roberts and Barathwaj was rewarded with a wicket for them each. Baz bowled exceptionally, and was unlucky to only take one wicket.

To keep a team to 84 with 9 fielders and short boundary was an outstanding effort. Yes, there was a lot of classic Allstars fielding, but we held every catch, and just about everyone stopped at least one ball they had no right to.

I was worried that 84 was going to be too many with a short batting order and a pitch playing tricks, but cometh the hour, cometh the man. On a wicket that had confounded everyone before him, Pradosh looked assured from ball one. He came to the crease at 19/3 in the middle of an excellent spell from Danu Chandra, and immediately struck the ball more cleanly than anyone had all day.

Baz battled manfully for his 5 runs. It feels like such an unfair reward for how well he played, how he weathered the storm and how he supported Pradosh. The pair compiled 45 runs to take us within striking distance, and – despite a little sputter – a towering six from Pradosh was the icing on the cake of an all-time gutsy win.

These wins don’t just happen. Sure Pradosh made 49*, took 3 wickets and a held a catch – a fantastic all-round performance – but without Steyn Grobler’s efforts behind the stumps and consecutive slaps for 4, Nathaniel Hill’s dedication in the field, and Anindya Roy’s diving catch, we could easily have been out of the game in the first 10 overs. And they’re just three names – everyone contributed to the result.

And maybe if Aethelred had shown the same strength of spirit, you’d be reading this in Danish, and it would be about handball.