Long Ditton v Clapham Nomads - 31/7/16

A much stronger-looking Nomads side turned out for this one, with Prasanth, Hassan, Zeeshan and Zia all making welcome returns. Most of us managed to avoid the absolute chaos caused by the London to Box Hill cycle ride but we were still short at 2.20 and, for the 3rd week in a row, had to bat first by agreement.
This proved no bad thing at all as Mahesh and Darwin, who are developing into a fine opening pair, put on 74 - our best opening stand of the season by some distance.
Mahesh was first to go, LBW to the stand-out bowler T. Leaning. By then, Darwin almost had his 50 and he duly completed the landmark before falling to Spahr.  A fine knock.  Prasanth and Hassan took us into three figures but the loss of Prasanth on 102 left the game hanging delicately in the balance.
Hassan was in fine form though, and a magnificent 63 not out dominated the second half of our innings. He was well-supported by all his partners with KK (15) and Zeeshan (13) contributing most.  A sharp piece of work from mid-off to run out Patrick and late wickets from the Neely siblings were the best moments for the home side, but Nomads' pace never relented and a single from Hassan off the last ball of the 35 overs took us up to our first 200 for a while.
Long Ditton are more than useful though and contain plenty of the type of opponent we fear more than any other; the well-trained youngster.
I didn't attend this game and someone told me later that, at the halfway point of Long Ditton's innings, they were only on 50.  I think that is a slight exaggeration looking at the figures, but certainly excellent bowling from Hassan, despite injury, kept a firm brake on the scoring rate. The legendary all-rounder capped a great performance to record figures of 7-2-10-1.  Zia bowled at high pace at the other end and also went for less than the required rate.  Long Ditton could not really make up the lost ground despite acceleration around drinks.  Most Nomads bowlers were pretty economical; only Emil went for the 10 an over Ditton needed by that stage but he retaliated with the inevitable wicket.
It was not totally without tension but we held on well to record a 25-run victory.
John Crossland stated in the scorebook; "we had enough runs on the board but fielding was not good."  I trust he is not including himself in this as, with 2 catches and a run out, the evergreen keeper is Fielder of the Day. Darwin took the other catch.  Clear Man of the Match was Hassan for a commanding individual performance.

Clapham Nomads 200 for 8 from 35 overs

M. Vyas  13
D. Gunawardena  51
P. Pattiyil  7
H. Khan  not out 63
Zia  5
KK Khusro  15
Patrick  4
Zeeshan  13
Abbas Khan  7
E. Todorow  not out 3
Did not bat; J. Crossland

F.O.W. - 74, 80, 102, 107, 151, 168, 185, 194

Long Ditton  175 for 7 from 35 overs

Clapham Nomads' bowling

H. Khan  7-2-10-1
Zia  6-1-26-1
KK Khusro  5-0-23-2
Abbas Khan  7-0-45-0
Zeeshan  7-0-30-1
E. Todorow  3-0-30-1

Clapham Nomads won by 25 runs

Man of the Match - Hassan Khan
Fielder of the Day - John Crossland