Outstanding Vosloo

Harrow pulled off a quite amazing comeback on Saturday despite having been outplayed for most of it by league leaders Winchmore Hill.

Batting first the top order was blown away by some disciplined Winchmore Hill bowling. At one point Harrow were 78-8 with new ball bowlers Gatting (4-46) and Thorpe (4-52) doing the damage? The last two wickets managed to scramble another 45 runs thanks to Michiel Vosloo and Avinash Karia, but the home team were still bowled out for a paltry 123. Harrow's plight was further emphasised by the humiliation of having to come out and field for 45 minutes before the tea interval! After tea Winchmore Hill carried on from where they left off and proceeded sedately to 66-2, requiring only 58 more runs to win.

What followed was scarcely believable and surely the most amazing hour of cricket seen at Payne’s Folly for many a year. Opening bowler Michiel Vosloo has been a revelation this season as much for his never say die attitude as his skilled pace bowling. He ran in hard and hussled the Winchmore Hill batsman until something eventually gave way. Suddenly they found themselves wobbling at 84-5 with all five wickets falling to Vosloo. Panic seemed to take hold of the remaining batsmen and thanks to superb support from Tushaar Karia at the other end 84-5 became 92-7 and then in a flash, thanks to a great slip catch by Anant Brahmbhatt and an equally brilliant run out from Nikin Ruperalia, the scoreboard showed 95-9. There was still time for some tense moments as the visitors edged to within a few boundary hits from victory, but the momentum had shifted so quickly and completely that when Tushaar Karia trapped the last man LBW it seemed as though the result had been inevitable. The last eight Winchmore Hill wickets had fallen for 44 runs as Vosloo finished with outstanding figures of 16-1-50-7 and Karia with excellent supporting figures of 16-1-49-2.

It is not the first time this season that Harrow have come back to win a game that they had no right to win, but demonstrated once again a great team spirit and determination about this current Harrow side.