The last week of preseason fixtures saw Southgate 2s make the short hop over to Finchley to face what we expected to be a very strong Finchley side.

Finchley won the toss and decided to bat first - definitely the preferred option on the day.

Finchley started confidently against our seamers - despite an early wicket. This led Southgate’s returning skipper Sam Faruqi to bring on our spinners Amila Cooray and Dheer Shah who squeezed Finchley’s batsmen producing a series of vital wickets which left Finchley 97-5 after 17 overs.

After a late surge of boundaries, a few cameos from Finchley’s lower order (& a few questionable lbws calls) Southgate managed to restrict Finchley to 205 in 34 overs.

Given the quick wrap up to the innings, teas weren’t ready so Southgate’s openers Mustapha Mirza and Amila Cooray had to weather the storm of Finchley’s opening bowlers for 10 overs.

Unfortunately this did not happen owing to some hostile bowling, strong fielding & a questionable lbw which left Southgate 57-3 at tea.

Going out after drinks there wasn’t much to write home about; Finchley’s skipper brought on their spinners who bowled a number of variations to our middle to lower order to leave them guessing & leaving Southgate bowled out for 70.

Not the best showing with the bat for Southgate’s 2nd team. However, there were plenty of positives in the bowling & energy which we can take forward into the season.

Mustapha Mirza