Old Leagonians v Clapham Nomads - 20/20 at Epsom cc updated

Nomads did well to take a 12-man squad down to Epsom cc for our 20-20 against the Old Leagonians on Sunday.
There were 2 new men; Faruk Patel and Paul Murphy and also a first appearance for Hameed who had come all the way to Joseph Hood the previous week only to be denied a game because of Burgh Heath cc's mud allergy.
Nomads won the toss and batted first in what soon turned out to be quite difficult conditions.  The pitch was slow and had some very low bounce for bowlers from the Town End.  The outfield was extremely slow after the recent mini-monsoon.
Darwin and Mahesh had first go and they chugged along at around 4 an over against some useful swing bowling from the Leagonians' youngsters.  Darwin scored the faster of the 2 but Mahesh was an entertaining presence at the other end; doing an "Ali Shuffle" before every ball.  Darwin calls Mahesh "Max" but "Mark" might have been more appropriate as Mahesh played several Bradshaw-style drives in front of square on the off side.  It is always a good sign when this predominantly leg-side player hits it to the off.
The rate of around 4 an over was kept up and after about the 6th over, umpire/skipper Todorow began to have urgent conferences with the pair - aware that Nomads line-up was packed out with strokemakers, and presumably telling them to hit out.
Darwin was first out for 24 with the score on around 40 in the 9th or 10th over.  Wickets then began to fall with regularity.  Mahesh made about 23.  Gul and KK made a few each.  Riaz, our made hope of a big, rapid score was unfortunately out early.  Hameed looked stylish but unfortunately skied the ball - he had lost his bat on the way to the game and had to use one of the pieces of driftwood in Nomads' kit bag.  The pick of the middle order was Faruk who hit a breezy 20-ish including the only 6 of the innings.  Paul Murphy hit a beautiful straight boundary back over the bowler's head as the rate climbed above 5.  After 18 overs we were 94 for 6 and 110 looked a possibility.
The last 2 overs are best glossed over as only 1 run came from them.  Nick faced the last over but, after failing to connect with the first 4 balls, panicked and went for a suicidal single, running out his partner.  Sorry again, Paul.  The last ball was a dot and so Nomads had achieved that extreme rarity; a Maiden 20th over in a T20.  Nomads' scorer and analyst John Crossland was less than impressed.  "We needed a bare minimum of 100", he growled.  Could he be proven wrong?  It has happened but only occasionally.
A quick turn-around and the experienced pair of Emil and Riaz kicked it off for Clapham.  Riaz went for around 6 an over but Emil, hair floating in the breeze at the Racecourse End, bowled an excellent spell of 4 overs.  His figures must have been good. Leagonians just about matched the asking rate but for the loss of 4 wickets early on.  One Riaz over was kept back for the death and the skipper threw the ball to Hameed and Faruk.  This proved a master-stroke of ruthlessness as this pair pretty much bowled the Epsom side out of the game (or so we thought).  Hameed slanted it in at above medium and can't have conceded many.  After 2 looseners, Faruk announced his intentions by scattering the stumps with his third ball.  He went for about 4 an over but his 3 wickets ripped the heart out of OLCC's batting in a fine spell of Fast-Medium bowling.
KK kept up the good work and by the end of the 16th over, Leagonians needed 38 off 4 with only about 3 wickets left.  3 came from the 17th but a scorer's error then apparently left the batting side requiring 35 from just 2 overs.  It looked all over but one of the OLCC youngsters took a shine to the bowling of the returning Riaz with 20 off the over including 2 sixes.  The scoreboard error was then realised and suddenly the home team only needed an eminently gettable 15 off 2.  Happily, a fine pressure catch from Riaz in the deep removed the star batsman.  10 to win off the last 6 balls but Todorow had mis-calculated and was not able to put on one of his main bowlers for the final over.  Luckily he was able to turn to Darwin, a specialist Death Bowler who bowled a match-winning final over against Carshalton Athletic in the 20-20 last year.  Darwin proved more than up to the task again with 2 wickets for no runs off 3 balls and Nomads emerged victorious by 9 runs.
This was more like an attritional full-length game than a 20-20 and it showed the value of our careful 1st-wicket partnership.  Excellent bowling and fielding from Clapham.  John Crossland only conceded a very few byes, Hameed and Darwin impressed in the field but Fielder of the Day was Riaz for his vital pressure catch.  Man of the Match was Faruk for his excellent all-round performance, though Darwin also had a brilliant game.

Clapham Nomads 95 for 8 from 20 overs

M.Vyas 23
D. Gunawardena 22
Gul  4
Hameed  2
Faruk  18
R.Khan  0
KK Khusro  5
P. Murphy  5
N. Lefebve  not out 1
E. Todorow(capt)  not out 0
Did not bat; J. Crossland (wkt)

F.O.W. - 33, 46, 51, 82, 84, 88, 94, 95

Old Leagonians 86 all out from 19.3 overs

Nomads' bowling

R. Khan  4-0-29-1
E. Todorow   4-1-10-2
Hameed  4-0-14-0
Faruk  4-0-19-3
KK.Khusro 3-0-13-2
D. Gunawardena  0.3-0-0-2  

Clapham Nomads won by 9 runs

After tea and with rain and bad light threatening, it was decided to play 12 overs a side.  Emil shuffled the pack and Chris Kennedy came in for Nick Lefebve (I wasn't dropped - though after scoring 1 not out off 7 balls and running Paul out I deserved to be - I had to go to work.)
Nomads fielded and Spin Twins Paul Murphy and Emil Todorow opened the bowling.  Murphy showed some crafty twirl and flight, but the batsmen were able to take ones and twos to the deep-set field.  Emil is not technically a spinner but is wily enough to be one and also he actually looks like a spinner.  We had transferred onto the correct Sunday pitch and OLCC opener Richard Teasdale led a fierce assault on Emil;s bowling.  The 50 came up in the 5th over.  When I left, the score was around 66 for 2 off 6 overs and Nomads looked on course for a hiding.  I  will let readers know what happened when after I have seen Emil and I will amend the report and include more scores when I get the scorebook back.
Thanks again to Richard for organising the day and we look forward to 20-20 finals day on Sunday 4th September.

UPDATE.....We did lose the second game which was 12 overs a side.  Old Leagonians made 123 for (?) 2.  Nomads made 61 for 7 and so lost by 62 runs.  Further scores to follow.

Old Leagonians  123 for 2 from 12 overs

Nomads' bowling

P. Murphy  3-0-34-0
E. Todorow  2-0-29-0
Faruk  2-0-24-1
Kk. Khusro  3-0-19-1
Hameed  2-0-27-0

Clapham Nomads  61 for 7 from 12 overs

R. Khan  33
KK. Khusro  0
Gul  13
D. Gunawardena  0
Hameed  2
Faruk  1
P. Murphy  0
E. Todorow  not out 1
J. Crossland  not out 6

F. O. W. - 20, 40, 46, 49, 53, 53, 54







 

Clapham Nomads v Burgh Heath - 12/6/16

Last Sunday's home game against Burgh Heath unfortunately fell victim to the weather.  Next up is the 20-20 tournament on Sunday 19th.