Barn Elms, Sunday 24 May 2026.

Karnataka Challengers UK 142-3 (20.4 overs: Sid Kothari 41, Amit Deverathippa 2-37) beat St Anne’s Allstars 138 all out (27 overs: Sreeram Balasur 26, Vipul Nanda 5-34) by 7 wickets.

Allstars Debuts: Roshan Bhusal, Sreeram Balasur, Tanai Mansingh.

Scorecard

Report by Garreth Duncan – Photos by Ben Hampton, Garreth Duncan and opposition

It’s amazing to think 25 years have passed since a group of guys met up at King’s Cross station to travel to the Nottinghamshire countryside to play our first official game as the Allstars. Since then, we have welcomed over 350 players into our club, as one generation of Allstars followed another. We have toured eight countries in that time, and made friendships and memories to last a lifetime. It was fitting that the Bank Holiday weekend which marked our silver anniversary took us back to Barn Elms, where we had celebrated our first victory, over Rain Men, a quarter of a century ago. On this occasion, Karnataka Challengers, who we were playing for the second time, were too much of a challenge – but not without another spirited fight in which we gave our all once again.

On a day when the thermometer was pushing 30C, I won the toss and, much to the relief of all, decided to bat first. John Kingston and Raghavendra opened for the Allstars, with John dropping anchor as Raghav went for his shots from the off. He quickly crunched three fours before edging Challengers’ opener Roopesh Prabhu to the keeper. Sreeram Balasur, the newest of our Banbury contingent, began watchfully before upping the ante after the first drinks break, pushing for twos while piercing the field for boundaries. John also began to step up the rate before, with exhaustion finally getting the better of him, he was run out going for a tight second run. Left-armer Jayesh Shah was settling into a nice rhythm, and he ended Sreeram’s fine debut effort with a sharp caught and bowled to leave us 79-3.

Ross Blackmore, who has had a good start to life with the Allstars, carefully saw off his first couple of overs – but then he suddenly exploded into life, blasting Vipul Nanda’s first delivery for a monster six over mid-wicket before launching his next ball over long-on for another maximum. Our guest player from the opposition, Tanai Mansingh, also started well, the hundred was raised, and we were looking in very good shape indeed – only for Ross to perish next over as he went for another big shot and was caught at deep mid-wicket.

Ross’s dismissal proved to be the game’s turning point. Vipul’s first over had gone for 20 as he suffered from Ross’s onslaught – but with his nemesis gone, he quickly took his revenge in spectacular fashion. Amit Deverathippa was unlucky to be adjudged LBW, and next ball, our third debutant, Roshan Bhusal, was stumped by some smart work by Challengers keeper Sharva. Ben Hampton struck the following delivery straight to Sid Kothari at cover to complete Vipul’s hat-trick – but he still wasn’t finished with us. In his next over Tanai skied to extra cover, and two balls later I had my stumps rattled. Vipul had taken a five-for in the space of eight deliveries, and in the blink of an eye, 101-3 had become 112-9. But the last pair showed spirited resistance as Anil Kuriakose counter-attacked with some fine boundaries, and with last man Nathaniel Hill defnding stubbornly at the other end, they put on 26 for the last wicket before Nathaniel was bowled.

Defending a target of 139 wasn’t impossible, though we needed a good start in response. But Challengers’ openers Adarsh and Kothari came flying out of the traps, the fifty being raised in the 7th over. It was Amit, taking off his keeping pads to have a bowl, who gave us some hope as Adarsh was smartly caught by Ross at square leg. With Raghav also bowling skilfully, we got a brake back on the scoring – and Raghav’s slower ball to deceive Kothari was a thing of beauty, up there with Harmy’s dismissal of Michael Clarke in the memorable 2005 Ashes Test at Edgbaston. Challengers’ skipper Chaitanya Iyengar quickly came and went as he chopped Amit onto his stumps in the next over. But we just didn’t have enough runs to play with, and Dhritiman Sharma finished the job with a flurry of boundaries.

It was still a great day’s cricket, and we all gathered together – finally getting some shade after being out in the heat of the sun – before toasting our silver anniversary with the opposition in the Red Lion, where we had celebrated our club’s first win all those years ago. We have much to look forward to over the season and many more to come – and we begin again soon, as we get re-acquainted with our friend and Allstar Pablo Burgin and the Banbury boys in our inaugural fixture against WIng on 13 June.