Northfields v Clapham Nomads - 17/7/16

Nomads lost a very pleasant conference game against Northfields (on the Brentford /Ealing border) on Sunday.
Nomads took 10 over to Northfields cc for this match.  Was it the West London post code that put the 11th man off?  It shouldn't have done.  Emil drove from Clapham to Northfields in 48 minutes.
Surprisingly, there were a few Nomads' late-comers and so the Home side inserted us, but steady rain delayed the start until we had almost all arrived.
Northfields - probably uniquely - feature 3 players called D. Redhead and one of these (Derrick) opened along with Thompson, and this pair soon had Nomads in trouble at 2 for 1 in the 4th over, Redhead clipping Mahesh's leg stump.
Fine batting from Abdul and Darwin improved our fortunes.  Several nice shots stopped inches from the boundary in the wet grass, though a 6 from Abdul showed the way to avoid that.  Abdul survived an LBW appeal when a yorker hit him full on the foot.  Sadly he has fractured his little toe and may be out for the season.  At least the fact that it was the little toe on the front foot vindicates the Not Out decision but this is scant consolation.  I hope you feel better soon, Abdul.  Batting with a runner, Abdul was bowled for 18 with the score on 27.
Hassan strode out and produced, with Darwin, Nomads' best batting. Darwin produced the 2 most classical shots with a bullet straight drive and a sumptuous cover drive for 4.  Hassan was more cautious but looked very solid and took singles at will.  Darwin fell to David Redhead for a top-score 30 and was replaced by Zia who made a most entertaining 24, taking 14 off the first 3 balls of a David Redhead over before being bowled off the 5th ball.  KK kept up the good work with Hassan and 117 for 4 was our high-point. A steady slump after that was enlivened by a hard-hitting 18 from Abbas with deceptive medium-pacer Connelly striking 3 late blows for the home side.  There was a vintage Crossland leg glance for 3 off the last ball.  We used up our full 35 anyway and finished on 142 for 8 which was not a disaster.
A nice tea was followed by enterprising batting from the Home openers.  The field was drying and a string of boundaries made it look as if this would be quite a short afternoon.  Brilliant and hostile fast bowling from Abbas then brought us right back into the game. He pegged the stumps back 4 times to reduce the home side to around 55 for 4. He just missed out on his hat-trick but the match looked well-poised.
Sadly Abbas couldn't get his five-fer and, despite tight bowling from Emil, a very sensible stand between Clapham-born opener Toby Collins and vice-captain Thompson, both of whom made 50, saw Northfields home. The only chance was a drop on the boundary when about 30 were needed, but this probably wasn't crucial as Northfields had some talented players, including 2 Redheads, still in the pavilion.
This was a really enjoyable game, Northfields - well organised by Nigel Russell - are an exemplary club and a nice bunch of guys who enjoy their cricket and have worked hard to produce an excellent cricketing set-up.

Clapham Nomads 142 for 8 from 35 overs

M. Vyas  1
Abdul Khan  18
D. Gunawardena  30
H. Khan  24
Zia  24
KK. Khusro  8
Abbas Khan  not out 18
N. Lefebve  1
E. Todorow (capt)  0
J. Crossland (wkt)  not out 3

F.O.W. - 2, 27, 61, 94, 117, 121, 127, 132

Northfields 114 for 4 from 28.4 overs (T.Collins and A. Thompson both made 50s)

Nomads' bowling

H. Khan  4-0-19-0
Zia  7-1-39-0
Abbas Khan  7-1-36-4
E. Todorow  7-0-23-0
KK Khusro  3-0-19-0
Abdul Khan  0.4-0-6-0

Nomads lost by 6 wickets

Man of the Match was Abbas with a fierce spell of bowling which kept us in with a chance for a while.  His first over was too short but a series of excellent stops from Zia at Backward Square Leg prevented too much damage and kept Abbas's confidence high, which resulted in 4 or 5 deadly overs from the young paceman.  So Zia is Fielder of the Day.
One strange feature of this match was that, of the 12 wickets to fall, 11 were bowled.  I can't really explain that.  The pitch was good, only 1 or 2 catches were spilled and there were only a couple of leg before appeals rejected.  Just coincidence I guess.  The only other wicket was LBW and I was the victim.  I would like to claim that being given LBW is superior to being bowled but I have been trapped in front in each of the last 3 games. That must tell me something (and it can't possibly be that Nomads' umpires are over-generous to the bowling side.)