The ECG, Mill Hill Village CC, Sunday 6 September 2026.

Edgware CC 189-5 (22.4 overs: Mox Patel 64, Rahul Kothari 40*; Barathwaj Nagarajan 3-22) beat St Anne’s Allstars 187 all out (35.5 overs: Pradosh Bose 62*, Raghavendra C R 42; Jeet Swaminarayan 2-4; Jaimin Patel 2-17) by 5 wickets.

Allstars Debut: Deepak Sukhani

Scorecard

Report and pictures by Anindya Roy

Back to Mill Hill Village and the ECG, scene of last year’s encounter with Edgware when Rahul Kothari took 4-8 and then smashed 75 not out as they chased our 113 in nine overs. We therefore arrived for the rematch armed with experience, renewed optimism and, presumably, some sort of plan.

More on that later.

Skipper Pradosh Bose won the toss and elected to bat against a strong Edgware side filled with regular league cricketers, which meant we would have to play very well to compete.

Amit Deverathippa and Raghavendra started us off in commanding fashion, with Amit crashing three boundaries in the very first over from Rahul Kothari. Meanwhile, Raghavendra negotiated the nifty pace bowling of Rahul Vinod. Amit was starting to look very dangerous before Vinod removed him for a well-made 23 from 17 balls. Sreeram Balasur quickly settled in and made 11, including two beautiful boundaries, before Vinod disturbed his stumps.

Raghavendra took over the anchor role, setting the tone for our innings with an excellent 42 and hitting the ball around the park while wickets began disappearing at the other end. Ross Blackmore and John Kingston departed to excellent deliveries from Kothari before I wandered out, feeling unusually comfortable at the crease, struck a boundary off my first delivery and briefly entertained thoughts of making a meaningful contribution. Naturally, I then top-edged a Jeet Swaminarayan delivery straight to Moses Ogbimi for 5.

Edgware impressed with their ground fielding, especially Moses, who was also a very good bowler and perhaps unlucky not to get a wicket. Hamza Nouman showed some resistance before falling to a good one from Riten Savani. Barathwaj ‘Baz’ Nagarajan soon followed after a very uncharacteristic swing and miss while stepping out, with Rahul Kothari (yes, him again) completing the stumping. When Raghavendra’s fine innings finally ended we were 97-8. At this point, frantic discussions were being had on the sidelines about how 120 was defendable, 150 ambitious and anything approaching 180 would give us something to genuinely play for.

Enter Pradosh. Captain, leader and soon-to-be legend.

I had by now swapped batting gloves for umpiring duties and consequently had the best seat in the house for an onslaught of fairly epic proportions. With debutant Deepak Sukhani providing wonderfully stubborn support, Pradosh began taking the Edgware attack apart.

So entertaining was the counterattack that I repeatedly forgot one of the more basic responsibilities of umpiring: counting to six. Fortunately Amit was on hand to tell me how many balls had actually been bowled whenever concentration wandered. Baz eventually asked whether I fancied swapping umpiring duties. I declined. Why surrender front-row seats when the entertainment was this good?

Particularly enjoyable was watching the Edgware fielders’ complexions progress through various shades of pink, purple and red as Pradosh continued his assault – with some of our old friends from Edgware appearing especially unimpressed by developments. There was so much chatter on the field that we began wondering who was actually captaining Edgware that day.

At the other end, Deepak’s contribution was every bit as important. His 11 from 45 balls was an innings of tremendous resilience, putting a price on his wicket and giving Pradosh the licence to attack while steadfastly refusing to go anywhere himself. Their ninth-wicket partnership added 75, dragging us from 97-8 to 172-9 and completely changing the complexion of the game.

After Deepak missed a straight one from opposition captain Jaimin Patel (a very nice bloke) and was adjudged lbw, Nathaniel Hill ventured out and continued the resistance against a very good Edgware bowling line up. Pradosh eventually finished with a magnificent 62 not out from 45 balls, including eight fours and three towering sixes. From the wreckage of 97-8 we had somehow reached 187 all out – a total that felt considerably larger given where we had been.

Edgware openers Mox Patel and Paumil attacked the chase positively, but we gave them far more of a fight than the eventual margin might suggest. Amit charged in with serious pace and extracted some vicious bounce from the surface, while Raghavendra was excellent all day behind the stumps. Deepak removed the very dangerous looking Moses Ogbimi, and his spin proved to be the perfect foil to Amit’s searing pace as Edgware found him very difficult to negotiate.

We welcomed back our friend Hamza, whom we last met in beautiful Matfield, and he accounted for a well-set Jeet Swaminarayan who was caught on the boundary line by Pradosh, who could do no wrong that day. And then Baz began spinning a web against an Edgware team looking to be in a hurry to finish off the game. Abrar Mohammed, who had blasted 21 from seven balls, was again caught on the fence by Pradosh as Edgware consistently went for big shots. Two sharp stumpings by Raghav helped Baz to excellent figures of 3-22. Suddenly Edgware were 131-5 and, against a side of their quality, we had somehow dragged ourselves right back into the contest. Unfortunately, there remained the small matter of Rahul Kothari.

Mox Patel had played an excellent anchor role at the other end, but Rahul arrived with little apparent interest in letting this develop into a thriller. Those of us who remembered his 75 not out against us last year began experiencing an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu. Still, with roughly 25 required, the game was not entirely dead.

At which point our El Capitano perhaps took the only misstep of his match by taking himself off – while bowling very well, I might add – and asking me to bowl.

In my head I consider myself to be a bowling all-rounder. The plan was to attack the stumps, get a wicket as we were leaking runs anyway. The execution should, in theory, have been equally straightforward. Instead, I repeatedly missed the blockhole and served up full tosses. Rahul duly got underneath both and dispatched them for monstrous sixes. When I finally fired one wide, Rahul top-edged it into no-man’s-land as luck began deserting us too. Mox, perhaps sensing an all-you-can-eat buffet, joined in with another maximum. Any lingering hopes of a grandstand finish disappeared towards the Mill Hill shrubbery along with the ball.

And because cricket occasionally likes to pile on the misery, the final delivery beat a swinging batsman, keeper and everyone else, hit the helmet and added five more byes to proceedings. At this point, I had raised the proverbial white flag on behalf of the team.

Rahul finished with a brutal 40 not out from 16 balls, while Mox completed an excellent unbeaten 64 as Edgware reached 189-5 to win by five wickets in 22.4 overs.

Defeat, then, but a performance with plenty of character against a very strong Edgware side. Raghavendra set the tone with the bat and kept superbly, Deepak produced a wonderfully resilient innings and chipped in with a wicket, Baz’s 3-22 gave us genuine hope, Sreeram and Ross were excellent in the field, Amit batted well, bowled with real pace and hostility, and Pradosh’s extraordinary rescue act turned what looked like a very short afternoon into a proper contest.

At 97-8, few would have imagined us reaching 187. At 131-5, even fewer would have imagined we would briefly have Edgware looking over their shoulders. We made them work for the victory, which represented considerable progress from last year’s nine-over shellacking. Another chastening encounter with Mr Kothari, although compared with last year’s 75* and 4-8, we can perhaps claim statistical progress. At this rate, we should have him down to single figures by about 2029. One can hope. Provided I don’t bowl.

Edgware were deserved winners and great company once again, and we look forward to another crack at them next season. Next up, this Sunday, we head back south of the river for our penultimate game of the regular season against our good friends, Plastics CC in Wimbledon.