ETON v HARROW
Lord’s, Thursday 8th May 2025
There was a chill in the air as the players arrived at Lord’s, but by noon, this unique ground was bathed in sunshine, which blessed the occasion for the rest of the day. Harrow won the toss and invited Eton to bat, hoping for some early moisture, but the pitch, two in from the edge of the square on the Tavern side, was dry and firm. As ever, there was a short 45-yard boundary on one side and a 75-yard boundary towards the Grandstand. Both teams had a new Master-in-Charge: Dan Escott at Harrow and Richard Coughtrie at Eton.
Both Eton opening bowlers generated some pace but lacked accuracy, and Faheem was quickly into his stride with three early boundaries, and Harrow were scoring at five an over when Chukwuemeka moved one away from him to be caught behind to make it 36-1. Humphrey joined Jones, and after consolidating initially, they steadily became more confident as Eton switched to off-spinners Davies and Cunningham, who both bowled tidily, but without penetration. The 50 partnership came in 66 balls and both batsmen reached their fifties from 80 balls just before lunch, when, having hit the previous ball for six, Humphrey was bowled in Brasher’s first over attempting something similar at 135-2. Soon after lunch, Jones was pinned lbw by Malik (159-3).
Nelson hit the first ball after the interval for six, and looking every inch the class player that he is, breezily scored at a run a ball, before Sparrow surprisingly nipped one through his defences (185-4). Skipper Snow and Rawal continued the acceleration and put on 59 at a run a ball. Cunningham had the former well stumped off a wide with the score on 243-5. It was Rawal who played the innings of the day, improvising impressively with three sixes and as many fours before being caught at backward point just having reached his fifty when the score was on 270-6.
There was a flurry of runs and wickets in the final two overs. Still, Harrow were well pleased with a commanding total of 282-8, which was achievable on such a good batting surface with a short boundary on one side, but at least one person was going to have to play a major innings. Chekwuemeka was the most successful Eton bowler 8-0-37-3, and Davies the most economical 11-0-39-0, and Eton had fielded tidily throughout.
Page Croft and Fulton both looked assured initially, but Impani and Singh both bowled at a lively pace and castled each of them: Fulton to make it 25-1, then Page Croft on 29-2. This brought together Eton’s two senior batsmen: skipper Duguid and the talented Edsberg. Both played well, with the latter especially fluent, and they added 83 in 81 balls. Neither looked in any difficulty, but in the last over before tea disaster struck as Edsberg, the non-striker, called a single to backward point and ran as Duguid remained stationary, and Nelson is too competent a cricketer to have messed up the throw as the score reached 112-3.
Harrow were jubilant, but this was a body blow and the key moment of the match; Edsberg marched off distraught 20 yards ahead of his captain for tea, and the task of scoring 171 now required from 30.5 overs had become much more difficult. Lewis joined his captain: both were determined not to lose another wicket, but batted cautiously against Mehta, a left-arm spinner who pushed it through and bowled a consistently full length and straight line, achieving the excellent figures 11-1-26-1 in a single spell. The pressure was beginning to tell, and the introduction of leg-spinner Patel brought immediate reward as he trapped Duguid lbw, falling just short of 50 from 89 balls at 149-4.
Mehta had Lewis caught at short third man (165-5) before Brasher joined Cunningham, who also played cautiously. In an extraordinary period of play, there were 137 consecutive deliveries (overs 26.4-49.2) where the maximum number of runs scored from a delivery was one. At the start of this period, the asking rate was 5.5 runs per over; by the end of it, it was 11.8.
Meanwhile, Cunningham was bowled by Patel at 188-6 and Brasher was lbw to the off-spin of Nelson (213-7). At that point, Eton woke up and threw caution to the wind: Chekwuemeka and Sparrow hit 38 runs in four overs, but it was all in vain, and Eton were bowled out in the 55th over for 250 to lose by 32 runs. Harrow’s most successful bowlers were Patel 10.2-0-55-3, and Nelson 10-0-57-3, and their most economical was Mehta at 2.4 runs per over. Harrow’s fielding had been of a consistently high standard.
This was Harrow’s fifth consecutive victory in this fixture, and they were undoubtedly worthy winners. Eton could only lament the run out, and the overly cautious batting for such a long time after tea, which left them with too much to do.