Team India A v Clapham Nomads - 17/9/17

Nomads finished off the season with a rather tame defeat against Team India A at Bromley Common. This was a new fixture suggested by Mahesh Vyas and they were very pleasant opponents with a nice ground and we would be probably be quite well matched although, unusually for this season, Nomads batting did not come off.
I don't know if that is due to the shock of a start time of 11:45, which is a time many Nomads probably did not realise existed, for sporting purposes anyway.
I arrived at 3.45, due to working Night Shift, and found that our bowlers had done a good job to dismiss Team India for 153. However, the boundaries were long and the outfield slow-ish, so this was probably worth 170 or so.
A 10 a side match had already been agreed on.
Unfortunately we lost Mahesh who gloved one to the keeper 4th ball. There then followed the best batting of the innings with a stand of 33 between Darwin and Riaz, Riaz was then out for 21 - the top scorer - and a collapse followed from 33 for 1 to 37 for 6. Even Hassan missed out, which is very unusual for him this season.
The bowling was steady and varied but not spectacular and the pitch was decent, so it was just one of those inexplicable things. This season's has been one of the best batting line-ups we have ever had, so we cannot really complain.
Abbas did steady the ship a bit batting at No. 8 until his dismissal brought together the old favourites Emil Todorow and John Crossland, hopefully to make the deficit respectable and provide a bit of entertainment along the way. Emil had started shakily but, after 3 or 4 overs, began to look assured; he hit a nice 4 and was beginning to middle the ball. The pair were reasonably amicable with one another initially, despite Emil's basso profundo cry of "Calm down, John" becoming a temporary catchphrase for Team India's younger fielders. Soon however, John charged down the pitch and flicked the ball to Short Midwicket and yelled for a single, Emil hesitated, went for it, but was run out. I was half asleep (despite being umpire) so I cannot really say whose fault it was but there was a lengthy and ongoing analysis of the situation from the 2 protagonists. Spectator Andrew West also joined in.  Anyway, Nomads were all out for 74 at 5 c'clock.
A beer match was hastily arranged which made an already unhappy John even less contented.  I had to leave when Team India A were on about 40 for 3 but apparently they won the beer match as well. It's not all about me but I must mention that I took my first wicket for Nomads for several years in the beer match - caught on the boundary beautifully by Faseeh off a half volley. Shit gets wickets as the cliche goes.
So there was a strange end of term feel to what has been one of Nomads' best season, but it was still an enjoyable afternoon (and morning) of cricket.
More details and analysis of the season to follow.

Team India A (recorded in scorebook by John as Gupta XI) - 153 all out from 33.3 overs

Nomads' bowling;

Hassan  5-2-10-2
Emil  5-0-33-1
Abbas  7-1-39-1
Sami  7-0-31-0
Faseeh  4.3-0-12-3
KK  3-0-12-1
Riaz  2-1-4-2

Clapham Nomads  74 all out from 20.2 overs

Mahesh  0
Darwin  8
Riaz  21
Hassan  1
KK  6
Faseeh  0
Sami  1
Abbas  8
Emil  10
John  not out 1

F.O.W. - 0, 33, 35, 35, 36, 37, 45, 56, 74

Nomads lost by 79 runs.

Man of the Match - Faseeh  - Not just because he took a catch off my bowling;.he also took 3 wickets in the main match
Fielder of the Day - Abbas (he took 2 catches.)