Winning start for Adam Stevens’ Addiscombe 3s

So the first league game of 2019 was upon us. The Addiscombe 3rd XI started a brave new dawn under the captaincy of Adam Stevens and first up was Mitcham.

Sadly the weather was a challenge as we gathered at Addington 1743. The ground looked in great shape (thanks Graham!) but the pitch was soaked by a downpour 30 mins before the scheduled start time. It meant that the start time was delayed 2 hours and the match reduced to 30 overs per side.

As well as a new skipper, ACC welcomed Finn Peronius back into the ranks after a few years away and also two debutants in Samson and Irshad who were given a warm welcome to the Addiscombe fold.

Mitcham put us into bat and Jon Kuhrt and Martin Stone opened on a tricky-looking track. Martin went to pull a short one off his first ball. It was a lovely shot. The problem was he completed it sometime before the ball got to him and he was bowled for a duck.
This brought in Irshad, potentially the first genuine New Yorker to represent Addiscombe in our 153 year history. He looked good, driving fluently off the back foot and running well. He aimed a big heave at one and missed which prompted Jon (a nudger and nurdler) to urge caution. Clearly listening to Jon’s wisdom, he did the same next ball and was bowled for 12.

This brought in Sadiq who batted well with Jon and together they took the score to over 100. Jon reached his 50 with a 6 into Addington Village Road and Sadiq played some lovely pull shots and cuts. After putting on over 80 together, Sadiq unluckily got bowled by a shooter for 26. Then next over Jon hit a full toss straight to a fielder and departed for 62.

Samson was unlucky and got bowled by the best delivery of the day which meant Robbie ‘Senior Pro’ Narraine and Skipper Adam to belt it around in the remaining 5 overs. They did great with Robbie 15 not out and Adam using his 'long levers' to great effect with some spanking shots to end 26 not out. It meant we got 171 off our 30 overs which we knew was very competitive.

After a lovely Sue Maguire tea, the team took the field full of energy with lots of shouts of ‘C’mon the double As’ and Adam assuring every bowler that ‘it’s you and me pal’. The Generation Game double act of father and son Vinay and Nikhil Malhotra opened the bowling. Vinay started well. Then Nikhil’s first ball was hit direct to Jon at mid-off who dropped a dolly.

But it did not take long for Vinay to remove the dropped batsmen an over later (phew). Vinay kept the ball up, bowled a good line and got the first 3 wickets. Nikhil showed promise, and could have taken 3 wickets if catches had been caught. At times, he bowled a tad short which the Mitcham batsmen enjoyed tucking into.

Anything pitched up caused Mitcham problems as their batsmen all looked to drive expansively which did not really work in those conditions. It meant mid-off and mid-on were seriously in the game. Finn took 2 catches at mid-on and then Jon, having adjusted his contact lenses, ended up with 3 catches. Finn and Imthiaz then came on to replace the Malhotra family. Both bowled a bit of a mixed bag but got 3 wickets each as Mitcham's batsmen did not look to hang around.

Adam wisely pushed the fielders out when their big-hitting Afghan came in and straight-away he duly hit one out to Jon at long off (who dived to make it look dramatic) but held onto the catch.

It was a good start to the season as we won by 78 runs. Bowling wise, Vinay ended with 3-16 off 5 overs, Nikhil 1-34 off 5, Imthi 3-24 off 5 and Finn 3-16 off 3 overs.

There were promising debuts for Samson who kept well and Irshad who caught a massive skier and made a great ‘Long Island’ contribution to on-field banter. There’ll be a lot of options for nicknames, but ‘Big Apple’ seems to be an early contender.

Well played everyone. Particular thanks to crocked Jack Stone, (with a pulled bottom muscle) who showed great club commitment by scoring for the whole match. All-round a great start to the season for the 3s.