Harry Redknapp can’t save cricketers from Harlington pitch

On Sunday 11th May Imperial 1st XI played at home against Royal Holloway 1st XI in a LUSL fixture.

Whilst we were missing a fair few players due to exams, newcomers Prajesh Jadeja and Vinay Babla made an immediate impact in the side by supplying endless amounts of entertainment on the journey to Harlington. Prajesh was convinced he could feel it raining (whilst stood in an underground tube station) and therefore felt the match should be cancelled, whilst Babla’s excuse for turning up in tracksuit bottoms instead of smart attire was because “Jeans don’t have zips.. innit”. Upon arrival to Harlington, it was dubious as to whether we would play as the uncovered pitch was soaked through.

On a gloomy, cold, and miserable day, Imperial batted first, and immediately the nature of the pitch became apparent. Aside from the chunks of turf flying off the pitch after every delivery, balls were rearing up off a length and the Imperial batsmen took a fair few blows. Wickets fell quickly and despite a small partnership between Zain Rizvi and Matthew Knights, the soggy outfield combined with the minefield that was Harlington’s pitch meant that runs were hard to come by and that survival was the name of the game. Despite Arvind’s military experience, even he was bowled by a leg stump grenade. Similarly, the conductors of the Banterbus (Babla and Prajesh) were undone by balls that decided to take the Picadilly line (underground) straight into the stumps. After a fair amount of struggle and plenty of bruising, Imperial managed to claw their way to 79 off 31 overs. A disappointing batting effort in the end, but given the circumstances it was definitely a total we felt was competitive.

After an intense half time talk/bollocking from Harry Redknapp Imperial took to the field... Well everyone except Vinay Babla who was busy “applying his sunscreen.. innit”. Well Royal Holloway certainly could have done with some UV protection because Matt Knights struck with the first ball of the innings and Cameron Currin picked up a wicket in his first over too. The pressure was on RHUL and it certainly showed. Unfortunately, questionable umpiring led to many an LBW appeal turned down and RHUL were really struggling with only 27 runs off their first 10 overs. Imperial were sharp in the field which was a real positive compared to last week, and tight bowling by Prajesh Jadeja also produced a wicket which meant RHUL were now 3 down.

Sadly it seemed as though Vinay’s prediction regarding the sunscreen had come true, as up until now it had been spitting with rain and cloud clover throughout the game, but sun made an appearance which meant bad news for Imperial as RHUL brought up the win after 28 overs of graft.

Transferwise MOM was the Harlington pitch – although Matt Knights was also a contender with a wicket and 22 runs to his name.

Whilst I’ve tried to put a positive spin on a disappointing result, and concerns about the fitness of the pitch have been raised, at the end of the day, Imperial 1st XI did not perform to the standard we know we can, and some maturity in our approach to batting wouldn’t do us any harm.

On the plus side our fielding was creepy sick and bowlers hit their straps well. Hopefully with our regulars back in the team in the next few weeks we can re-assert our dominance in both BUCS and LUSL.

P.S. I wasn’t joking about the Harry Redknapp thing.