Hello again you amazing people! It's me again, I haven't been gone too long so I hope you didn't miss me. I know a certain Owen O'Neill-Khaled is probably tired of seeing my face having already seen me everyday this week! Another scorcher this weekend with not a single droplet of rain in sight. (When is it gonna end Robbie?) A much better weekend for the club than the last couple of weeks, an unbeaten weekend which always puts a smile on Mr Mark Giffin's face! Also makes these a lot easier (and a lot longer) to write which is always a massive positive! Anyways lets find out how we got on this weekend...

Ealing Trailfinders CC 1st XI vs Kenton CC 1st XI

The 1s made the trip to Ealing Trailfinders and returning skipper Dylan Assani was straight back to business as he won the toss and decided to bat first. Thankfully, thanks to his wife Puja, he was able to navigate out of Banff National Park in Canada and make it safely back to England. A huge day for 2 young men as Saif Butt and Puneet Pattni made their first XI debuts. Single ladies, if you're out there Puneet plays 1st XI cricket and he would love to take you on a date, so get in touch via his instagram @puneetpattni and he will get back in touch with you! Ok, now that we've got the important bit out the way, Rajiv Soneji opened with Saif and unfortunately, things didn't go to plan for Saif as he was out for a first ball duck. This brought Hem Shah to the crease. In difficult conditions, Soneji and Hem battled and battled before Soneji was eventually dismissed for 20 (73). This brought Kaushlendra Singh to the crease and he hit got the scoreboard moving at a faster rate, including launching a huge six. Hem Shah was the dismissed for a well made 41 (87). Yashil Kamdar continued the battle along with Waaris Deen before Yashil ran past one and was stumped. Skipper Dylan arrived and him and Waaris continue to tick away. An interesting incident occurred where skipper Dylan had absolutely barbecued Waaris as they came through for a run. Portuguese international Khadem Nipo then took the bails off and had allegedly run Waaris out. He was claiming it and Waaris argued he took the bails off with his hands, which he did. Credit to ETCC skipper Jamie Oakley who withdrew the appeal as he saw that Nipo took the bails off with his hands. Anyways, the boys kept toiling hard, batting out the full 55 overs for 175/8. With the ball, the boys were motivated to take all 10 wickets and get the job done. Things started well when Qudratullah Khiyal executed a fantastic run out to get one of their better batsmen Krupesh Patel run out. Yashil Kamdar then got their other opener on 27 before skipper Dylan decided to roll back the years with his 23 over spell. Dylan took 4-56 and arguably should've had his 5-fer but the umpire had other ideas. Yashil had Nipo out caught by skipper Dylan, not before he received a hostile entry to the crease by Mr Hem Shah. The boys were well on top with ETCC 59/5 and then 109/8. But again the boys just couldn't take the final 2 wickets quickly enough and ultimately ran out of overs. Huge, huge credit to the boys for giving it their all out there but it just wasn't to be. Losing draw.

Scorecard:https://https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7258406

Kenton CC 2nd XI vs Wembley CC 2nd XI

The 2s were at home to bottom of the table Wembley and were confident they could return to winning ways. Stand in skipper Dilan Wanniarachchi won the toss and elected to bat first. Same story with the 2s as it’s been all season, where a couple guys have got going and just failed to kick on. Skipper Chich and Bishan Shah both got into the 20s but were unable to kick on further, however in the context of the game, they were relatively important 20s. The top scorer was Chirag Purohit with 43 (57) and the boys ended up with 167 all out. The boys were still full of confidence that they could claim a massive 12 points. Ajmal Jaberkheil as he so often has this season got us going with the new ball as he removed their skipper lbw. It was them Devm Parekh who starred with the ball yet again as he took 6-55 bowling a marathon 23 overs from 1 end. There was a mini partnership where a couple wembley batter started to really grind it out but once that was broken it was all Kenton. Sohail Butt wrapped up the tail to end with 2-15, with Wembley 132 all out, and it was a gigantic 12 points in the context of relegation. Enfield, Stoke Newington and Chiswick all lost, boosting the 2s hopes of survival. Win by 35 runs.

Scorecard:https://https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7259083

Kenton CC 3rd XI vs Finchley CC 3rd XI

The 3s hosted Finchley on the bottom pitch in the first of the battles of Manoj Prasanga this weekend and were fielding first. Raj Parmar, as he has many times this season was bowling absolute heat with the new ball as he claimed 2 early wickets. The star of the show was Jameel Shah as he took 4-41 in 10 overs to swing the game our way. He was supported by Devesh Kerai and Zakirullah Khiyal who also took 2 each to bowl Finchley out for 180. Samit Patel, the most in form man in the country right now, got the chase off to an absolute flyer. Yug Patel chipped in with 23 but it was Samit's 79 (80), hitting 10 fours and 2 sixes that swung the game our way. There was a mini wobble on the way but Dhiresh Kanji and Raj Parmar saw us home. It's taken 14 gameweeks, but TikTok megastar Dhiresh Kanji finally has his first win in a Kenton shirt! Roshan Madhaparia also took his first catch for the club so 2 huge milestones achieved in this game for the 3s. Big win, but still a lot of work to do in the remaining 4 games if the boys were to avoid the drop. Win by 3 wickets.

Scorecard:https://https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7259561

Finchley CC 4th XI vs Kenton CC 4th XI

In the second battle of Manoj Prasanga this weekend, the 4s were bowling first away to Finchley on an astro-turf deck, something skipper Deepak Singh was not happy about at all. The game started with controversy off the bowling of Jaisal Jansari, caught behind by Roshan Desai. A fantastic catch by the Padel man but the umpire didn't hear or see anything. Anyways, Jaisal eventually got his man, caught by the returning Chetan Mukesh. Chetan could count as an overseas since he had come to play from all the way in Leicester. The returning Vijay Prajapati took the next wicket, caught behind by skipper Deepak. This led to the arrival of their skipper, in the Sri Lanka lid, setting up like a prime Kumar Sangakkara and to be fair, he batted like him. Rahil Patel did beat his outside edge many times but to no avail. Once he got set, there was no looking back. He unleashed a total onslaught, genuinely forward defending for 6. Finchley declared at 361/2 after 42 overs. 50 overs to bat, and Deepak and the boys were not going to back down. However, Roshan Desai, last week's centurion Soham Khurjekar and Hiten Kara were dismissed and we were in a pickle at 22/3. Sahil Goswami and Shubham Patil continued to go for it but once Sahil was dismissed on 33, the 4s had no choice but to go and achieve the draw. Thanks to youngster Jaisal Jansari's 26* off 68 balls and Shubham Patil's 80* off 131, the boys came back with a point. The boys really appreciated Shubham's effort, coming out to bat in a cap looking like Shubhman Gill, chants of "Shubby Shubby P Shubby P, Shubbyyyyy Shubby P!" rang out from the boundary and you can tell the man appreciated the support. His beaming smile across his face could genuinely lead to world peace. Losing draw and 1 point for the 4s.

Scorecard:https://https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7259917

Hemel Hempstead Town CC CV XI vs Kenton CC CV XI

The CV side turned up to another glorious Hertforshire ground and skipper Hem Shah won probably the greatest toss he will ever win. Batting first in 35 degree heat. Saif Butt opened with Devm Parekh and Giff's instructions were for the boys to win and for Saif to get another ton. Unfortunately for Saif, he fell just 100 runs short of this, falling to a pretty good seed third ball. This brought Devesh Kerai to the crease and combined with Devm for an 85 run partnership before Devesh ran past one. It was a top 44 off 45 from Devesh and he deserved 50 and possibly even more. Devm then brought up his 50, a really top innings that set a platform for us to kick on from before he was dismissed for 68 off 67, hitting 9 fours. Vinay Halai and Jonny Rye then combined and continued to keep runs flowing. The Hemel boys had played football in the morning and to be fair, it was evident with their fielding effort as it was not the greatest. Vinay was dismissed on 49 off 63 and Rye on 41 off 32. Abhishek Jha with a couple of boundaries at the end to get us up to a big 310 in 45 overs. Two men who hoped the game would be done quickly was Saif and Rahil Patel as they had no time to eat their cheesy chips that didn't get made quick enough at teas. It was Abhishek and Prithvi Nakrani with the new ball to get us going. After the 3rd ball of Hemel's innings, the scorecard was pretty even, with both teams 0-1. Devesh with a run out with Rye taking the bails off. A diamond duck for the opener at the non-striker. The other opener then pulled one straight to Saif at square leg, you can tell he was hungry for them chips with the way he gobbled that ball up, before their overseas Australian had one roll onto his leg stump, also off Abhishek. The Chess Valley spin twins, Zakirullah Khiyal and Devm Parekh continued to weave their magic and 32/3, quickly became 47/6. Zakirullah was the pick of the bowlers as he took 4 wickets in his 10 overs. The boys fielding was impeccable up until they decided they want to be out in the blazing sun and roast for a bit longer. Drops from Zakirullah, Abhishek, Hem, Prithvi and even Devm gave their skipper many lifelines as he continued to target the cars on the road behind the ground. Had Zakirullah and Rahil Patel at long on and long off playing real life crossy road to try and retrieve the ball. The 9th wicket fell with a run out from Devm before the final wicket fell at 134. Rahil with his first legal ball trapping the skipper lbw and finishing the game. Win by a massive 176 runs and boosting the CV side's hope of survival.

Scorecard:https://https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7231212

26 points this weekend, but an unbeaten weekend which is a huge positive! Check out the Instagram for my TOTW and see you all next week for another one of these!