3rd XI vs Highgate 4s

Southgate arrived full of excitement on a lovely hot day for the first league game of the season against Highgate 4th XI.

The match was played at Enfield Grammar, a ground with relatively short straight boundaries and a very good batting wicket. Speaking to the opposition beforehand, who regularly play there, they suggested that around 250 would be a par score.

Southgate bowled first and made good use of the depth in the bowling attack, using nine bowlers throughout the innings. Wickets were shared around, with Rupesh, Jason, Ibrahim, Amila, Barath, Divyen and Kevin all picking up a wicket each. However, on such a strong batting track, Southgate were left chasing a huge 357 from 45 overs.

Southgate started the chase positively, with Amila blasting 37 from 30 balls alongside Jason in a solid opening partnership. The middle order then showed real strength, with Rahman scoring 26 from 31 balls and Rupesh making an entertaining 34 from 42 deliveries, including some massive sixes.

A special mention goes to Bhavesh, who scored his first Southgate league fifty with a composed 50 from 67 balls. He batted brilliantly in an anchor role, rotating the strike well and punishing the bad balls.

The lower order provided a strong finish to the innings, including a huge six from Divyen during his quickfire 34 from 26 balls. Kevin also added valuable late-order runs with an unbeaten 24 from 16 deliveries, including some classy boundaries.

Southgate eventually finished on 272/8 from their 45 overs. In the end, some loose bowling and untidy fielding proved costly, with around 60 extra runs ultimately making the difference.

Despite the result, the first league game of the season for the 3rd XI was an enjoyable one with plenty of positives to take away. Considering the late cry-offs before the match, the team competed well, and with a few improvements there is plenty of confidence for a strong season ahead.

Mohit Bajaj

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