Nomads v Dulwich - 3/5/09 - Dulwich's innings

The afternoon began with the usual early season pitch controversy. The pitch we had booked was suspiciously short, with even more holes than you would expect from a Council strip in May. It looked as if some sort of schoolboy 20-20 match had been played on it. We decided to use an adjacent track which was half-cut at best and quite green, but not dangerous-looking.
It was a fairly elderly Nomads side that took the field, with 2 men definitely in their 50s, 2 in their very very late 40s and 2 of indeterminate age. Certainly 6 players over 45 anyway. In contrast, most of the Dulwich 3rd XI were nice polite young lads of 16 or 17 who wore the confident smiles of the talented and well-trained.
Dulwich batted first and former Sheffield Schools player Rob Jenkins took the new ball from the Coombe Lane End, with Emil Todorow going downhill from the By-pass end. With both bowlers providing good control, Jenkins supplying some pace and the young Dulwich openers playing correctly, progress was slow and 10 overs passed with only 28 on the board. Jenkins made the first breakthrough and the new batsman provided more of the same. Ajmal and Enam were the change bowlers and Ajmal was particularly impressive; his genuine pace didn't necessarily worry Dulwich's young players but it certainly slowed their scoring rate. Ajmal finished with 0 for 21 from his 7 overs at a time when the opposition were looking to accelerate. Enam's figures were even better, with 2 for 22 off his 7 overs of lively, swinging, medium pace. At this point Nomads briefly appeared to have their noses in front with 3 down for about 70 runs and over half the overs used. In the final 10 or 15 overs, a couple of Dulwich batsman, Ebert and another younger guy who made 50, really took a hold with impressive straight and leg-side hitting. It was here where the age difference showed; Dulwich batsman were able to take many quick singles and, most tellingly, converted a lot of ones into twos. Some of Nomads fielders (the "Stars on 45" ?) struggled a bit with the intense pressure. The commitment was generally there but the speed of movement and reflex sometimes weren't. I suppose this is preferable to the reverse. The cracks in Nomads' morale were beginning to show with some colourful vocabulary. The return of Todorow and Jenkins kept some sort of a lid on things but ultimately Dulwich's total of 172 for 7 from 35 overs came as something of a relief - it felt higher. Nomads' fielding was a mixed bag again but there was one excellent diving catch from Prasanth - though he did miss a much easier one shortly afterwards.
The report for the Nomads innings will follow in a day or two