Taylorian

Sport

Cricket 2023

1st XI The Summer Term has started well after a good indoor pre-season and important time spent on the grass in the marquee throughout March. Rishi Thapar was named as 1st XI Captain for the 2023 season, and he has been ably supported by Aaryan Sawant and Krish Patel as vice-captains following a robust interview process. Despite the wet weather, the 1st XI managed to play their first competitive games of the season during the Easter holidays against Tonbridge School, who made the visit with a strong side. The spoils were shared on the day with one win and one loss in two T20 games. The pre-season training set the side up for good 50-over victories against Hampton and Whitgift in the first weeks of the season. Hampton were beaten by 145 runs and Whitgift dominated in a 109 run victory; a fine display of bowling and catching in both games showed some early Cricket 2023

playing Berkhamsted twice (they finished best runners-up in the first round). Both games have been convincing wins: Krish Dhanuka showed his value to the squad at the top of the innings with 50s in both games. Forest away could have proven a tricky game but yet another quality knock from Sawant (79) set the platform for the bowlers to do their thing. Pansilu Wijesinghe took the first of his three 5-wicket hauls this season to ensure the victory. After those victories followed the highlight of the season so far; the T20 match against Eton College on the School’s number one pitch, which turned out to be the preamble to the T20 Vitality Blast fixture between Middlesex and Glamorgan. The stage was well and truly set, with the players entering the field of play to the backdrop of adverting hoardings, marquees, food vendors’ vans and even two grandstands. After winning the toss, Rishi Thapar had the opportunity to bat first on the world class wicket. Merchant Taylors’ batting in the T20 format has improved game

season promise. Unfortunately, a Saturday match at home saw St Paul’s snatch victory in the last over after a disappointing performance with the bat, despite a spirited 80 from new boy Brayden Doran. Noisy neighbours Haileybury were next to visit Sandy Lodge and after a poor bowling and fielding display, we were set a seemingly insurmountable 256 to win. However, cometh the hour, cometh the man: Aayran Sawant’s 145* for MTS successfully took us over Haileybury’s tally. The century was the second highest individual score in the School’s 90-year history of cricket at Sandy Lodge, and anyone that was fortunate enough to witness the innings will attest to Aaryan’s brilliance on the day, not only to score a century but then to go on and win the game in the 50th over for his side. The side has made strong progress in the national T20 cup, reaching the London Regional Finals; we are currently waiting for confirmation of the next opponents. In a strange turn of events, we have ended up

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Taylorian 2023