1s v Slough 3

The final match of the first half of season saw Slough 3 visit the Racecourse. Ascot won the toss and elected to field first. Slough started swell with an opening partnership of 68, which was broken in the 14th over by Tamoor Hussain when Asif Iqbal Asad Ali was lbw for 18.

But there was no respite for Ascot as skipper Puneet Chopra and Prabesh Bhandari smashed the Ascot attack to all parts of the ground with a stand of 162. Puneet Chopra finally went for 121 off 93 balls including 19 fours and 4 sixes to a smart caught and bowled by Rahul Singh. Prabesh Bhandari also fell to Rahul for 95 off 67 balls with 18 fours.

With Rahul Singh and Kamran Hanif bowling in tandem, the run rate started to fall as wickets also started to tumble. But the runs continued and Slough’s innings eventually finished on 342 all out from 49.5 overs, with Rahul Singh taking 6 for 123 and Kamran Hanif 3 for 78. This left Ascot 50 overs to make their highest ever league score.

Ascot started brightly but lost Dan Mallett and James Docker both for 14. Kamran Hanif fell for a run a ball 22 and Mike Breet for 4 leaving Ascot on 83 for 4. The innings was rebuilt with a 92 run partnership by Rahul Singh and Adam Smith (41). But with 20 overs remaining, Ascot needed 186 to win.

Rahul Singh and Nick Wiggett looked to build momentum and with 10 overs left, Ascot needed 104 runs. Ascot managed to keep up with the run rate and with Rahul Singh and Nick Wiggett still at the crease, 21 was needed off the final 2 overs.

Zain Ahmad bowled the 49th over, and the Rahul hit the first two balls for 2 runs each. But on the third ball, Rahul miscued and was caught by Sagar Chand. Rahul’s innings of 172 off 156 balls contained 23 fours and 3 sixes. His innings of 172 beat a 41 year old record for the highest 1st XI individual score in a league match, previously held by Antony Lion with 157 not out against Littlewick Green. Rahul and Nick Wiggett put on 151 on for the 6th wicket.

17 was needed off 9 balls, which soon became 17 off 7 balls as Ahmad held his nerve with 2 dot balls. But off the final ball Tamoor Hussain managed to get the ball away for a boundary leaving Ascot needing 13 off the final over. Captain Puneet Chopra took responsibility to bowl the final over.

Nick Wiggett took 2 off the first ball and then a single off the second ball. Tamoor Hussain then took a single off the third ball. Nick took another 2 off the fourth ball. 7 was now needed with 2 balls remaining.

The fifth ball was in the slot and Nick Wiggett smashed the ball back over long off for 6 to level the scores and reach his 50. With one needed Nick and Tamoor scrambled through for a great and historic win. 343 for 6 is the highest score by Ascot 1s in the league beating their 315 for 8 against Hurst in 2017.

Highlights from Rahul’s bowling and batting

Nick Wiggett’s 6 to reach 50 and tie the scores

A nifty piece of bat work

Crowthorne & Crown Wood 2 v 2s

The 2s made the trip to Crowthorne & Crown Wood. Ascot lost the toss and were put into bat first. Ascot started well with Manvir Dhaliwal (39) and Ben Moffat (39) put on 76 for the first wicket. Ascot then subsided from 89 for 1 to 101 for 5. Razwan Hanif (27) rebuilt the innings with Jack Barley, who then went on to blast 97 not out off 57 balls with 8 fours and 6 sixes to see Ascot reach an imposing 227 for 6 off 45 overs.

In response, Crowthorne & Crown Wood found runs hard to get as Rahul Mohindru with 4 for 21 and Tim Howson 9 overs for 18 including 5 maidens applied the pressure.

Dan Finucaine top scored with 21, but with only one other batter reaching double figures, Crowthorne & Crown Wood subsided to 78 all out with Razwan Hanif taking 5 for 20. A good win for the 2s on the road.

3s v Kew 2

Kew 3 were the visitors at Locks Ride and decided to field first after winning the toss. Batting was not easy and in between the single digit scores, Toby Dodwell-Bennett (30) and Waqas Ashraf (28) provided the early momentum to the Ascot innings. In the end it took the captain, Naeem Mohammad, with 58 off 57 balls to help Ascot reach a competitive total of 207 all out in 34.3 overs. Ed Owen took 3 for 26 for Kew.

In response, Kew had less issues with batting and built around Sunil Chandrasekaran’s 90 not out, Kew went on to win by 5 wickets with over 10 overs remaining.

Crowthorne & Crown Wood 3 v 4s

The 4s made the trip to Derby Field at Wellington College to play against Crowthorne & Crown Wood 3. Ascot won the toss and elected to field first. Crowthorne & Crown Wood were in early trouble at 19 for 4 and then 37 for 6 as Raf Bocchio took 4 for 8. Ateeq Mirza battled to 22 off 77 balls to top score but Ashwin Vasudevan cleaned up the tail with 3 for 9 to see Crowthorne & Crown Wood 102 all out off 32.1 overs.

Ascot made the run chase comfortably with Gyan Patel’s 39 not out seeing Ascot home by 8 wickets and over 20 overs remaining.