Dulwich v Clapham Nomads - 28/8/16

Nomads made the short trip to Giant Arches Road, the home of Dulwich cc, probably South London's finest club, to play their young but talented Development XI, well-managed as ever by John Lawrence.
Mr Lawrence is a Dulwich institution.  There is a scorecard on the wall of Dulwich's bar describing a match he played in for the club in 1966.  He is a primarily a coach/manager now but he still took an excellent slip catch on Sunday to dismiss Nomads' finest batsman - Hassan.
Anyway, after a slight delay due to rain, the Home side batted.  As expected, their technique was good, but some of them did struggle a bit against the pace of Zia and especially Abbas, who continued his excellent run of form with 4 for 16 in a rapid 7-over spell of pace bowling,  Hassan, Safi and KK also bowled well but the other Nomads bowler that the youngsters had particular difficulty with was Emil, who got through 5 overs and conceded only 5 runs.  Presumably it was not Emil's pace they had trouble with but just the mystique of the man.  Facing Emil is not something that can be taught or coached, it is just a life skill that the lucky few can acquire (if they are not bowled slogging first.)
With the exception of the No. 6 - name to follow -(G. Davies)- who made 31, no-one could really turn a start into big runs, and a steady stream of wickets resulted in Dulwich being dismissed for 96.
The same No. 6, G. Davies, opened the bowling and took 2 quick wickets - including the valuable one of Darwin - to rock the visitors back on their heels.  Nomads were scoring at 7 an over though and, once the wickets dried up, we soon began to look comfortable with Mahesh - who has had a great August - and Hassan dominating.  The useful leg-spinner / slow-medium leg-cutter bowler Alex had Hassan well caught by John Lawrence in the slips but Zia kept up the momentum and then struck 2 large sixes to have the match won before half past 5.  Zia just overtook Mahesh with these late sixes to finish top-scorer with 25 not out.  A very creditable unbeaten 24 for Mahesh.
So an enjoyable day out at an excellent ground against opposition who are always interesting and are a very pleasant and polite bunch - a credit to their club.
Nomads now stand at 7 wins and 7 defeats with just Old Leagonians (against whom we could be pre-match favourites) and Wimbledon United (for whom Dave Hitchman will score his usual century) to play.  We would have a chance of finishing in the top half of the table (if there was a table, that is.)
Man of the Match was Abbas for another deadly spell of green tea-fuelled fast bowling.  Fielder of the Day was John Crossland who took 2 catches behind the stumps on his return from injury.

Dulwich  96 all out from 28 overs

Nomads' bowling;

H. Khan  5-2-11-0
E. Todorow  5-1-5-0
Abbas Khan  7-0-16-4
Zia  7-0-33-2
Safi  4-1-3-2
KK Khusro  4-0-17-2




Clapham Nomads 98 for 3 from 15.5 overs

M. Vyas  not out 24
D. Gunawardena  4
Naeem  5
H. Khan  19
Zia  not out 25
Did not bat; - J. Iqbal, Safi, KK Khusro, Abbas Khan, E. Todorow (capt), J. Crossland (wkt)

F.O.W. - 5, 13, 43


Clapham Nomads won by 7 wickets.