Newdigate Sunday XI arrived at the John Innes Recreation Ground full of optimism, enthusiasm on Sunday 26th April 2026. The toss was won by Merton Eagles who chose to bat first on a bright sunny day.

Arjun Kiswani and Vamsi Krishna Gaddameedi opened the innings and took on the Newdigate opening bowlers straight away, even prompt bowling change did not help matters. Both the openers played good shots with great timing and placement, boundaries were flowing and the score reached 119 on the 17th overs when both the openers reached their half-centuries. Both the openers retired, true to the spirit of a Sunday friendly. Newdigate players brought out their true colours at that point and bagged 9 wickets for 78 runs in next 20 overs which was great. What was not great was the return of the retired openers who took Merton’s total to 223. Both Arjun Kiswani (67 off 61 balls) and Vamsi Krishna Gaddameedi (55 off 58 balls) remained unbeaten to form the foundation for a big win.

Jagadeesh Subbiah caused the middle order collapse for Merton by taking 4 wickets conceding 14 runs from his 4 overs. Dencil Antony continued from his great bowling form from last season to claim 3 wickets for 25 runs off his 6 overs. Mohammad and Monjur took a wicket each. Harry Grimley was unfortunate, despite his great firey spell, he remained wicketless.

Newdigate response was steady, reaching 100 runs in 25 overs losing 4 wickets was not too bad. David Farrington, who contributed a lively 27 before attempting a chip shot over the deep-gully fielder and almost succeeded dodging the jumping fielder, but did not. Jagadeesh added 24 before becoming an LBW victim of a innocent-looking low bounced half-tracker. The Low Bounced Half-trackers, sometimes turning into Floor-Rolling Half Trackers carried on to tricking two more Newdigate Batters. Newdigate score progressed to a respectable total of 150 on the 37th over, courtesy of Redwan Ahmed who scored 59 runs off 73 balls with 9 boundaries and 1 six.

Krishnan Chandrasekharan, the un-disputed champion of Low Bouncing Half-Tracking, sometime Floor-rolling Half Tracking bowler, was the pick of the bowling for Merton; his figures read 21/2 off 7 overs. Karan Sehgal 28/2 off 6 overs was pretty effective too. Kaushik, Ishwinder, Asrith and Brendan took one wicket each.

The difference between two teams were made clearly by the high standard batting from the Merton openers. However, Newdigate will take positives for the season from Redwan and Farringdon’s solid batting, Jagadeesh’s all-round performance and some pacey spell from Grimley.