Camden I v Stapleford (away)
10/05/25
KETUL BRINGS THIRDS TO THE BOIL
Sensational innings spurs Thirds to emphatic victory
Stapleford (6pts) 182-8 lost to Camden (20pts) 184-5 by 5 wickets
With the IPL suspended, all eyes were on the Thirds’ trip to Stapleford where the returning Fox-Teece would have been forgiven for wondering what was going on. Krishna bowling in the nets. Catching practice. Captain Redfern gathering his bowlers together for a chat. Did these nods to professionalism make a difference? Not initially, as the home side – asked to bat first on an uneven pitch – plundered forty-six from the first seven overs. But debutant Mukesh Kumar (cap 177) bowled the opener, putting the brakes on things. Redders replaced Subbu and saw off the other opener LBW, but the skipper was soon complaining of a sore shoulder. Baker had already taken over from Mukesh (1-34), who bowled a tidy eight over spell. Now it was time for spin at both ends. Two full tosses later, Krishna and Baker had taken wickets in consecutive balls. Ketul’s catch was straightforward, while Sutton’s was down and to the right. Downright magnificent, it must be said – diving, one-handed, inches from the ground. Subbu took a catch at midwicket to give Baker (2-36) a deserved second wicket, but Krishna (1-40) was proving to be expensive. Redders (2-20) was convinced to return to action, responding with a wicket maiden. 135-6 with eleven overs remaining. Subbu (1-29) emulated his skipper’s feat, and – with Ketul beginning with two maidens – the Thirds were putting the squeeze on. Ketul (1-12) took a wicket, but it was hard to tell which side would be happier with a first innings score of 182-8.
The reply began chaotically. First ball saw a Sutton leading edge go straight up in the air. Anyone on the leg-side stood a good chance of taking the catch, but the cover fielder called for it. Ran for it, too, across the pitch. And dropped it. Another sharper chance was parried in the gully, and the bearded opener also wore one on the forearm in what was an eventful and hostile first over. It was Foxy (6) who fell first, however – caught behind, the ball after the hosts were convinced he’d done the same thing. Prathyush was adjudged LBW for a duck in the same over, and – at 18-2 – the target of 183 looked a long way away. Redders didn’t think so, hitting six fours in a breezy 27 from eighteen balls, but was bowled by the first ball of the change bowler. The skipper’s footwork and judge of length could be questioned, but – jagging off the pitch – it wasn’t a case of missing a straight one. At 55-3 and Sutton not out on 16, it was so far so Camden.
What followed was most uncharacteristic. Indeed, Ketul’s innings – 79 runs from 49 balls, 11 fours, 4 sixes – was the sort of innings so often played against the Thirds. Mixing clean hitting with deft placement, Ketul had raced to 53 by the time Sutton was out at the fifth time of asking – caught at long-off for 30 from sixty-three balls. Freed from the calming influence of Sutton, Ketul cut loose – launching successive sixes into the trees, and taking the Thirds to the brink of victory. By the time he was fifth out, the equation was 21 runs needed from 89 balls. The solution to that equation turned out to be 22 runs from 12 balls, as Krishna (14*) and Subbu (16*) carried on where Ketul had left off. One shot from Subbu – a forehand smash, both feet off the ground – will live long in the memory.
“What do we do now?” asked Sutton, when Krishna sealed the win with a sweetly-timed drive to the extra-cover boundary. If forgetting how to celebrate was understandable, at least the Thirds hadn’t forgotten how to win. Indeed, a five-wicket victory with 12.5 overs remaining was quite the riposte to those who had claimed as much. Later, Captain Redfern dictated a telegram to his butler, to send to the Camden fan base: v. proud of the first team boys <stop> everyone contributing <stop> sealed the win assertively and in style <stop> incredible knock from Ketul <stop> up there for knock of the decade <stop>
Man of the Match: Ketul Saharan