Nomads made our annual trip to Northfields on Sunday for the latest renewal of what is becoming a classic fixture. Last year saw Nomads record our narrowest-ever victory; by 1 run in an incident-packed game. This year's game came close to matching that.
I didn't go to this one but Emil and John told me about it in the pub. According to former Nomads all-rounder Joe Chance, they had been excitedly recounting every ball for over an hour but were a bit worn out by the time I arrived.
Some Nomads were a little late - no great surprise, we had to cross the Thames - and Clapham batted first by arrangement to allow for a 40-over-a-side match. As we know, Northfields have some high-class bowlers but the outfield was extremely fast. As usual Nomads' run rate was fairly rapid but our seniors told me that a few wickets were thrown away. Nomads made 143 all out from 31 overs. Emil flagged up KK with about 40 or so, and Hasan with some late runs, but I'm sure there were other good contributions too. The guy who made his debut hit a large 6. More details to follow.
In the reply, wickets fell quite steadily and were shared around but Hasan's 3 late wickets reduced the Home side to about 125 for 9. From then on, according to John, every ball was unbearably tense, especially the one which was middled right into the chest of Emil Todorow at silly mid off (or on) and out again to the ground via the skipper's despairing hands (you could say it was 4 runs saved.)
Time was a factor as well as wickets but Northfields eventually secured victory by 1 wicket with an over to go.
John said that this prompted a pitch invasion by the entire home side - fair enough, Nomads are not easy to beat this year - and Joe Chance then asked if Nomads had ever invaded the pitch in similar fashion. John confirmed that we had; Joe then took the piss and compared it to Alex Ferguson and his coaching staff charging halfway across Old Trafford when Manchester United notched a late winner deep into Fergie time. It was quite funny but you probably had to be there. John was less than pleased.
It is all becoming a bit like the 2005 Ashes series. Whatever will happen next year?
More details to follow when I get the scorebook.
Clapham Nomads 143 from 31 overs.
Mahesh 2
Darwin 24
Riaz 14
Hasan 25
Zia 0
KK 31
Yahyah 8
Abbas 0
Sami 6
Emil 10
John not out 0
F.O.W. - 25, 44, 48, 94, 102, 107, 131, 134, 143
Northfields 146 for 9 from 39 overs.
Nomads Bowling;
Sami 6-0-40-0
Abbas 8-1-17-2
Zia 8-0-33-1
Yahyah 8-2-19-2
Hasan 7-1-27-3
KK 2-1-3-0
Nomads lost by 1 wicket.
Man of the Match - Abbas
Fielder of the Day - Hasan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment