They: 157/8 in 40 overs

Hiren Depala 50*, Nikunj Depala 25, Saurav Sen 3/32, Junaid Javed 2/20, Eddy Barreto 2/22

We: 158/7 in 34.3 overs

David Behar 52, Imran Khan 22, Tridib Das 21*, Extras 27, Vijay Bhatia 3/43

Our first game against this friendly north London club with a picturesque ground was another fixture sourced through the Club Cricket Conference. Unsure of the wicket and against the sage advice of his top-order batsmen Saurav bravely elected to bowl. By the time last-man-to-arrive Ajit Ramsagar made it to the ground via every conceivable tube line, 15 overs had been bowled and the Finchleians had got off to a steady start even though Eddy Barreto (2/22) – he of the rose tinted 80s sunglasses (inset) – bowled a tidy opening spell, unlucky to have only the solitary wicket to show for it.

The introduction of slower bowling also slowed the scoring rate as the spin twins, guest Junaid Javed and Sen, were able to prevent the opposition from running away with the game. A spirited 50 by Hiren Depala, who shepherded the tail effectively, nevertheless enabled the Finchleians to post 157. Tridib Das bowled a tidy spell for KCC at the end, accompanying David Behar who finally bowled enough overs to make it to the bowling averages for the season (and in the process got to set his own fields instead of having to suggest helpful hints from the deep square leg boundary).

Any thoughts that 158 was a sub-par target were quickly dispelled as KCC found themselves in a sticky situation at 43/4, with Rohan, Ajit, Regan and even the mighty San “10,000” Gore back in the pavilion before the halfway mark, as the opposition bowlers, led by Vijay Bhatia (3-43), aided by some impressively agile fielding, made the total look a lot larger than it was. This of course provided another opportunity for KCC’s very own Geoff Boycott (or should that be Laxman Sivaramakrishnan), David Behar, to show us how it was done, as he stroked an effortless 52 before throwing his wicket away (probably in disgust at how the top order had folded). Another collapse followed inevitably after David departed, until Tridib, following the Behar technique of handling pressure, finished things off with a nonchalant 21* at the end.