A Council error meant that our pitch was double-booked. Thankfully the Supervisor found another vacant pitch and, even though the groundsman had us listed to play, we trooped off down the road, minus an apology or thanks from the team playing on our pitch and minus an hour and a quarter of playing time.
Surbiton had elected to bat and, after waiting 2 hours for some action, one of their openers was unfortunately out 3rd ball, chipping a Hassan Khan lifter up to Jim Joyce.
As usual, Hassan and Emil Todorow made a formidable new ball pairing. Another wicket fell quickly and cautious progress took the score to only 9 after 6 overs. Some nice shots then began to flow, especially whenever Todorow dropped it short, and the 12-over mark saw a score of 39 for 4. Nomads' ground-fielding had been impressive with yet another run out from Abdul Khan the feature. The lethal Abdul had 4 shies at the stumps from distances of between 15 and 25 yards; 3 direct hits (the batsmen just got home) and the 4th one straight into the gloves of keeper John Crossland who completed the run out.
Abdul also bowled a good spell of swing bowling at fair pace and Terry Bruce-Mills yet again found his knack of making batsmen hit him in the air - 2 fine catches in the deep from Hassan and Abdul were his reward.
Beyond about the 10-over mark, Imperials kept up a healthy scoring rate and developed a habit of targeting bowlers late in their spells; the final overs from Emil and Terry both went for over 10, as did Abdul's penultimate over.
Some of the most interesting bowling came from Rashid Ahmed with his rapid leg-spinners scything into the left-handers. Crossland was at his best behind the stumps to prevent a string of byes as the turn was just too much for some of the batsmen. There was another run out, quite a comical one as, with both batsmen at one end, Emil missed the stumps and the wicketkeeper. Luckily the ball went straight to Hassan who was backing up and threw the stumps down from 10 yards with the batsman just out of his ground. Well, it was funny at the time.
Nomads had hopes for a while of dismissing Imperials for under 110, as 80 for 7 became 95 for 8, but powerful late hitting from Siddique and former Nomads player Khalid Harris took the score to respectability. Yet another final over (Rashid's) was carted to take the score from 122 off 28 up to 136 off 29. A good final over from Abdul, in which Siddique was dropped twice yielded just 3 runs and the innings closed on 139 for 9.
We would probably have settled for a target of 140 at the start as Surbiton have some good attacking players, but when we looked up after tea the sky had turned uniform dark grey and the ground was bathed in a beautiful half-light.
Imperials' opening bowlers, Suraj and Siddique, would be a tricky proposition even with normal visibility and, though initial progress was slow, it didn't seem to matter much as dense rainclouds covered an area stretching from the edge of the pitch to somewhere over Hampshire, and completing the game seemed a long-shot. The opening spells were negotiated safely and runs gradually came against the change bowlers. As 20 turned to 30, we noticed that the wind had changed direction and torrential rain was falling away to the North, hopefully on the team that had taken our pitch.
Mark Bradshaw and Mahesh Vyas were starting to look assured. Vyas even played a cracking off-side shot which is normally a signal that his eye is in. Unfortunately, Mahesh chipped a catch up to Siddique shortly afterwards but the 1st wicket stand had realised a valuable 41 runs.
Prasanth Pattiyil played a nice leg-side shot off Khalid but, looking for a repeat, he clipped the ball firmly to Siddique's left. Surbiton's star man took an excellent diving catch.
50 for 2 off around 14 and skipper Todorow was urging acceleration. He had just the man for the job in No. 4 Jim Joyce, returning to the side after missing several matches due to weddings and a Jack Russell chewing his phone. Jim managed a quick 10 and this was matched by Mark Bradshaw before Jim was bowled by Hitesh; 70 for 3.
Rashid Ahmed came out in drizzle, which soon turned torrential. The match hung in the balance as we took shelter; Nomads needing 70 off the last 10 overs, but the downpour was such that the only people who seemed capable of winning this game were Duckworth and Lewis. Kit was being stashed in car boots but Surbiton's skipper was particularly keen to complete the game and was rewarded when the rain stopped after half an hour.
Play resumed on a lovely evening - lovely unless you were batting, bowling or fielding as the ground and soon the ball were saturated. Mark Bradshaw had some problems with the grip on his bat and only 2 runs came from the first over after the break.
Once Mark had resolved his grip problem, he joined Rashid in having a valiant crack at the target; though the saturated outfield and the poor light were making it a tough ask. Rashid is very powerful and slightly unorthodox and this seemed to wrest back the initiative for Nomads. Imperials had two aces up their sleeves in Siddique and Suraj and Siddique did remove Rashid for 16 which came at better than a run a ball. Crucially though, Nomads scored 7 and 8 from Siddique's final 2 overs. Mark Bradshaw was beginning to play quite brilliantly and marshalled our chase as the required rate crept down. 41 were needed off 40 balls just after the arrival of No. 6 Hassan Khan, but this was down to 27 off 30 balls. Bradshaw, in particular, showed an impressive range of attacking shots all around the wicket and, with 3 overs to go, 14 were needed. The light was becoming a serious issue as Mark faced the awkward Khalid, who had only allowed 6 scoring shots in his 4 overs until then, but Mark just blew any doubts away with 2 absolutely cracking off-drives off successive balls, the first of which brought up a fine half-century, leaving Nomads with 6 to score from 16 balls. The umpire jokingly offered our lads the light at this stage. In the following over, somehow locating the ball somewhere in the gloom, Bradshaw wrapped it up with a 2 and a 4 to secure our second successive victory over these tricky opponents and transform a day which had began horribly.
Man of the Match is clearly Mark Bradshaw. A measure of how well he played was that in his match-clinching 5th wicket stand of 47 with Hassan Khan, Mark scored approximately 26 compared to Hassan's 18. Few players at this level can out-score Hassan by such a margin, particularly using orthodox cricket shots. Mark told me later that he was feeling off-colour having been kept awake by a neighbour playing Status Quo all night. For a Prog Rock fan to have to listen to a band who have about as much variation as Andrew West's bowling must have been distressing; all I can say is that I hope he plays this type of innings "again, again, again, again.." Fielder of the Day was Abdul again. The man is magic. The trouble is he prevents us team-mates of a similar age group from using our age as an excuse for our dodgy fielding.
Quote of the Day is from one of the team that took our pitch; "But this is a vital League Match. You just play village cricket." Hmmm.... Clapham...a village. I think a career in Estate Agency beckons him.
Surbiton Imperials 139 for 9 from 30 overs
H. Khan 6-1-10-2
E. Todorow 6-0-27-1
A. Khan 6-0-31-1
T. Bruce-Mills 6-0-36-2
R. Ahmed 6-0-31-1
Clapham Nomads 143 for 4 from 28.2 overs
M. Bradshaw 63 not out
M. Vyas 16
P. Pattiyil 3
J. Joyce 10
R. Ahmed 16
H. Khan 18 not out
F.O.W. - 41. 50. 70. 96
Clapham Nomads won by 6 wickets
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