2nd XI vs London Tigers

Southgate’s 2 XI 2026 league season got underway at home to London Tigers on a warm Saturday, with Faruqi winning the toss and deciding Southgate would have a bat.

Mustapha Mirza came out flying with a rapid 27, while debutant Beaven Fernando looked solid before getting out just as he was settling in.

The early platform allowed Liam Collett to do what Liam Collett does best.

For someone only in his early twenties, Liam batted with the maturity and composure of someone who has been playing top level cricket for a very long time. It was just quality to watch. He scored all around the wicket, never looked rushed and was always in control of his game.

The young Australian produced a superb 130 from 133 balls with 15 fours and 2 sixes, pacing the innings brilliantly before accelerating once he reached his hundred.

There was a slight middle order wobble with Woffers caught and bowled off a full toss, Akhil bowled around his legs and Alex Stanton stumped just before drinks. Standard first game stuff.

Thankfully Ollie Bellwood (28) and Sam Faruqi (27) helped steady things, before Adam Collins (16) backed up his pre match claim of “I can have a smash if required” by smashing 2 bombs in quick succession including one going over the clubhouse.

Josh Holmes then finished things off with a quick unbeaten 11 from 4 balls, while our own Ravi Gavaskar, in his Southgate floppy hat, walked back reminding us all that he had once again managed to come back not out, as Southgate posted an imposing 312.

The bowling was equally impressive. The wickets were shared around nicely with Josh Holmes picking up a couple of wickets, Ravi Desai and Adam Collins picking up three wickets each, while Woffers bowled a miserly spell of 9 overs, 2 maidens, 15 runs and a wicket. When asked after his sixth over how the rhythm was feeling, Woffers could barely get the words “yeah I’m fine to bowl through” out between breaths.

London Tigers were eventually bowled out for 107, rounding off an excellent opening day win for Southgate.

A brilliant start to the season. Batting and bowling excellent.

Fielding… room for improvement.

Alexandra Palace away next week.

1st XI vs West Harrow

Southgate began their league season with a 3 wicket defeat away to West Harrow, but there were plenty of positives to take from the performance. 

Captain James Dangerfield won the toss and opted to bat on a hot day in West London. Hugh Hyslop and Sunny Kanuparthi opened the batting and made the most of the powerplay, before the latter was bowled by a yorker. Max Joseph fell shortly afterwards to a ball that misbehaved off a length, but he was replaced by Christian McLoughlin and he and Hugh built a strong partnership together. 

Christian fell around the drinks break and was replaced by Nik Ravikrishnan who batted positively from the off. Nik frequently found the boundary and his aggression enabled Hugh to steadily accumulate at the other end. Nik passed 50 and was bowled the next ball, but had advanced Southgate to a strong position. Hugh continued and brought up his hundred on his Middlesex League debut, a fabulous knock that combined sparkling strokeplay with intelligence and nous, moving up and down the gears to suit the game situation. Southgate finished on 242/8 from their 45 overs, a score they were confident in defending. 

The second innings got off to a great start with debutant Dan Bint bowling a heavy ball and looking threatening, while Will McLoughlin bowled tidily, clean bowling one of the home team’s openers in his first spell. At this stage things looked very much in Southgate’s favour – by the end of the powerplay, West Harrow had scored at little more than 3 an over. 

However a combination of enterprising stroke play from the West Harrow batters, ill discipline from Southgate’s change bowlers and some under par fielding saw the home side wrestle their way back into the game. Wickets fell at regular intervals but we were unable to stem the flow of boundaries and were unlucky at times with miscued balls falling agonisingly between fielders and a decision or two that could’ve gone our way. 

Ultimately, West Harrow squeaked home, but this was unlike many of last season’s defeats where at times we felt out gunned. Here we left feeling as though we absolutely should have won, something we’ll aim to put right in gameweek 2. 

Max Joseph

(without the assistance of a scorecard due to technical difficulties)

2nd XI vs Finchley

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

2nd XI vs Old Minchendenians

A glorious afternoon of April sunshine at the Walker, and a beautiful day for some pre-season cricket.

A chastening defeat at Woodford Wells was soon forgotten as Southgate 2s won the toss against Minchendenians and elected to bat. Unfortunately, this meant providing three fielders for the opposition who had a bevy of latecomers.

It was the correct decision, though, as Mustapha Mirza and Amila Cooray put on a century stand. The former retired after passing 50, while a strong knock from Cooray ended with an edged cut on 45.

The new ball had raced to the boundary, but the dry ground and the old ball made it harder to score. Bellwood raced to 20, then ground out 30 more much uglier runs before inviting his bbq victim Mohit to pad up again. There were several positive contributions in a big total of 261.

In reply Minchendenians lost 2 wickets in a rapid first 50 runs before captain Parinda and Arpith ran through the middle order.

After that, it was over as a contest but all the bowlers got valuable mileage in their limbs.