Cricket have tough time at BUCS Indoor Tournament

Imperial took a squad of seven to Edgbaston, Birmingham on Sunday with genuine hopes of progressing from the semi-final of the BUCS men’s indoor tournament, despite a tough draw of Loughborough and Coventry Universities.

Having been asked to bat, it soon became apparent that it was going to be a tough day for the cricket club’s finest against a well drilled Loughborough side. Viran Parmar showed great touch at the top of the order but his opening partner James Musgrave went just as a promising start was beckoning. A constant loss of wickets left the captain, Matt Tarr, isolated towards the end of the innings and despite his excellent lower order hitting he was running out of partners. Imperial struggled to 71 all out, generally considered well below par in the indoor format.

Imperial needed early wickets and the opening bowlers, Parmar and Navin Surtani, started with superb spells but the necessary wickets didn’t come quick and as the batsmen began to find their feet, they set about knocking off the total. Ahsaan Ismail did make a breakthrough, but the runs on the board were not sufficient to sustain pressure and Loughborough made it home.

It meant Imperial needed to beat Coventry to have any hope of making the Cardiff final, so the squad went searching for inspiration in Birmingham. It turned out the gloomy surroundings did nothing for the cricketer’s chances.

Again inserted Imperial had their batting line up strengthened by the addition of Iain Stobbs and knew more runs would be needed. Early wickets soon left that a pipe dream after a catastrophic run out did for Parmar and it was once again left to the middle order to rescue the innings. Ankit Patel, the grandfather of IC cricket, came to the fore and batted wonderfully well with little support from the other end. He manipulated the attack and the slightly better total of 85-5 was thanks almost entirely to him.

Imperial’s bowlers struggled to contain the Coventry openers and had there been a repeat of the opening spell of the first game a tight contest might have ensued, but the batting side had wickets in hand, and despite another good spell from Ismail, Coventry were able to reach the target. It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Imperial boys who greatly surpassed last year’s achievements by reaching this latter stage.

All that was left was to put intimate local knowledge to use, find a curry house to wash away the bad taste of the day’s play and to curse the cricketing Gods for bringing us to such a wretched place.