There was a familiar feeling to the start of the new season as Nomads took on long-standing opponents Barnes Occasionals at New Malden's Beverley Park; a regular venue for us in the early 2000s which has the distinction of being John Crossland's least favourite ground.
Occasionals were a mixture of standing dishes; Keith Seed, the Hogg brothers, Roger Price, Luke Bedford, along with some worryingly athletic-looking products of their youth policy. Seed acknowledged that it was one of their stronger line-ups and he also remarked, presciently, that 130 could be a decent score on this pitch.
Nomads were reduced to 10 men by the non-appearance of Terry Bruce-Mills. The bad news was that we only fielded 4 regular front-line bowlers. The good news was that one of them was Andrew West.
After 2 months of drought broken just the previous night by very heavy rain, and with little piles of grass seed lying around expectantly, the track was of concern. Occasionals' battery of spinners and awkward slow-medium line-and-length bowlers couldn't wait for their turn and Nomads were inserted by Barnes skipper Roger Price.
Openers Mark Bradshaw and Mahesh Vyas made an understandably cautious start, looking for quick singles while they assessed the pitch. In truth, it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, though painfully slow and with some high, irregular bounce for Ollie Hogg. Hogg also supplied Vyas with two high full-tosses on leg and middle and the resultant 8 runs eased the pressure a little. Bradshaw looked sound and was beginning to find the gaps in the off-side field, being denied a boundary on at least one occasion by the long grass. The other opening bowler, Soper, was the more threatening of the two, sloping it in awkwardly and, with the score on 22, finding the edge of Bradshaw's bat with some sideways movement. Keeper Price held on to a good, low catch.
Jim Joyce announced his arrival with one of the shots of the day, a swashbuckling straight drive, but in attempting a follow-up he lofted the ball to long-on where Luke Bedford held on to a pressure catch.
Nomads' batting line-up appeared to lack a touch of depth and a lot depended on No.4 Hassan Khan. He dug in with determination but Barnes began to turn the heat up with Hogg finding the edge of M. Vyas' bat twice in an over. Leg-spinner Luke Bedford was introduced. A very big spinner of the ball, he initially over-pitched and was a touch predictable but once he had produced his googly in his third over, alarm bells rang and Vyas was bowled behind his legs with some acute turn - a leg-spinner's dream dismissal.
Nomads' innings hung in the balance at 40 for 3 but new man Darwin resumed the fine form he had shown at the end of last season with a solid 14, keeping H.Khan company in a vital stand of 39 during which the all-rounder began to accelerate. Khan found yet another gear in scoring all 22 runs of a 4-over partnership with Nick Lefebve. Khan despatched the bowling at will between mid-wicket and mid-on; a giant 6 off Bedford was the stand-out blow. Lefebve waited patiently for something nice on leg-stump but, when it came, he hit an Akram long-hop straight to backward square where Hogg O. rolled back the years with a fine diving catch. 101 for 5.
Hassan continued to play excellently right to the end and found some support from all the remaining batsmen; a quick 6 from Riaz Khan, a gritty, prizefighting 2 from Emil Todorow (undeterred by the 2 black eyes he had received in the nets last week,) and an entertaining stand of 10 with John Crossland full of manic running and an extraordinary attempted pull by Crossland which would have cleared the adjacent golf driving range and probably the A3 as well. The ball actually dropped at Crossland's feet but the fielders seemed slightly intimidated by the raw power of John's swing and yet another quick single was taken by the two postmen to leave Nomads on 131 for 7 off the full 35.
I made Occasionals clear favourites at the break, given the apparent strength of their line-up and their record against us, especially as we only had 4 front-line bowlers. A rate of under 4 seemed quite gettable on the slow and only slightly erratic pitch. Hassan struck a vital early blow in bowling Adam Hogg who has scored a century and at least three 50s in games against Nomads and Open University. The ball kept a bit low on Hogg and it must be acknowledged that the pitch did deteriorate somewhat during the 2nd innings. Hassan followed up with another quick wicket and appeared close to his best. There was sharp running during one stand early in Barnes' reply but few big shots and the score was only 20 after 9 overs. The other opening bowler, Emil Todorow, was bowling his inimitable mixture of yorkers and balls that reared up sharply off a good length - some may have blamed the pitch but all Todorow's many fans will be aware that he could get irregular bounce on glass. It was a fine spell from the veteran maestro and sure enough his reward came with 2 match-turning wickets in 2 balls. One of them looped up into the inner off-side and Jim Joyce and Hassan Khan converged on it. Joyce did well to hold onto the chance, particularly as John roared "Hassan's" just as it dropped into Joyce's hands.
Todorow narrowly missed a hat-trick when he produced another rearing, chest-high delivery and, sensing an opponent on the ropes, he moved in for the kill by introducing Andrew West into the attack. It was a pitch tailor-made for West who bowled a nice full length and let the ball do the work. Price, possibly Occasionals' star batsman, clipped West off his legs and Darwin held on to a good, sharp-ish catch.
The skipper sensed that he could finish off the job with his 4 main bowlers and he replaced himself with Riaz Khan, who was bang on the money with his new, experimental grip. Runs almost dried up but a steady stream of wickets continued. West was particularly impressive with his bowling-machine length which forced one batsman back almost onto his stumps for a plumb LBW. Two caught behinds from Crossland, who performed very well despite his well-publicised loathing of this ground, wrapped up the innings and a solid win for Nomads; only our third against this opposition.
Barnes Occasionals' collective air of suave urbanity only barely conceals a streak of solid steel and they are sure to come back at us very hard in the return match next month. This game will be played at Ham Street where we lost to Southall Eagles last year. If anything, that pitch tends to be more irregular in bounce than Beverley Park though rather quicker. Let's see what happens.
Man of the Match has to be Hassan Khan for his tight spell and for being the top batsman by some distance. All our bowlers earn an honourable mention. For Fielder of the Day I will go for Darwin who held probably the best catch to dismiss arguably Barnes' best batsman. A crucial moment.
CLAPHAM NOMADS 131 for 7 from 35 overs
M. Bradshaw c Price b Soper 7
M. Vyas b Bedford 23
J, Joyce c Bedford b O.Hogg 5
Hassan Khan 62 not out
Darwin c and b Seed 14
N. Lefebve c O.Hogg b Akram 0
R. Khan lbw Soper 6
E. Todorow c ? b Seed 2
J. Crossland not out 1
Did not bat - A. West
F.O.W. - 21, 31, 40, 79, 101, 108, 121
Barnes Occasionals 54 from 20 overs
H. Khan 5-1-9-2
E. Todorow 7-1-14-2
A. West 5-1-20-3
R. Khan 3-1-6-3
Nomads won by 77 runs
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment