Thursday 27 September 2018
Corrected bowling figures, John's report and averages
I have got the correct bowling figures for the India Legends match now so I will change the ones I entered in my report (they were estimates) soon. John has made a report on this match which I will also put on, along with the averages for 2018. Nick
Wednesday 19 September 2018
India Legends v Clapham Nomads - 16/9/18
For what was supposed to be the last game of the season, Nomads made the long journey to play India Legends (formerly Team India A) at Bromley Common cc. "The Common" are a Kent Premier League side and I cannot praise their set-up highly enough. Lovely facilities. We met the groundsman and found that he was chosen as Kent Premier groundsman of the year for 2018 which meant that we were, theoretically, playing on one of the best 20 or so pitches (below county level) in the country. It did play well; possibly a bit too well for Nomads as we tend to struggle to dismiss or restrict good players on a top class pitch far more than our batters benefit from the surface.
The Legends adopted the "anything down leg side is a wide" rule which was an interesting innovation - in the 1990s - and also allowed players to retire and return later in the innings.
Skipper Emil Todorow won the toss and batted. Mahesh, who has been struggling for runs, immediately showed very good determination and looked unshiftable at the crease. There was an unfortunate run out which saw Abdul depart with the score on 12 and then Darwin fell, having hit one resounding 4, on 23. A fine half-century stand between Mahesh and Hasan ended unfortunately with a superb jumping catch from Short Backward Point to dismiss the legendary all-rounder. 78 for 3.
Zia came out needing 46 to break Hasan's all-time record for runs in a season but Mahesh fell victim to the first of three unlucky "played on" dismissals in our innings as he seemed to have middled a leg glance but must have fetched it from outside off as the ball crashed into the base of leg stump. 90 for 4.
There were horses in the field beyond the ground and these creatures should have been nervous as Zia found his touch; sure enough, the ball soon sailed over the sightscreen and fence for 6. Next time I looked up, the beasts had removed themselves to the next field - possibly still within Riaz's range, though Riaz had fallen caught behind just after Mahesh when attempting to pull the wily leg-spinner Puneet.
Zia and Sami kept up some momentum but this was a phase of regular vociferous appeals and more cries of "plum / plumb" than Covent Garden Fruit and Veg market. In truth, only one of these shouts was plumb and this was duly given; Sami trapped in front of Off and Middle for 6.
Zia was bearing down on the record, and a 7th successive half-century, and when we called to scorer Crossland for an update, he confirmed that the star middle order player was on 46 and had achieved the record. As if to celebrate, he went for one of his massive straight hits but, surprisingly, it dipped into the hands of a swooping Long Off. 693 runs in a season, an outstanding performance and 7 successive scores of over 45 is incredible - some players (NL) have not achieved half of these 45 plusses in 29 seasons, never mind in consecutive games.
Before this, KK and Abbas had both been unlucky to be out Played On.
By now only Emil and John remained and it was hoped they might provide some entertainment and drama as they did in this fixture last year. Sadly it was not to be as Emil tried to pull the wrong ball and we were all out for 159 with 6.1 overs unused and Wides on 33 being the second top scorer.
After a very light tea, Clapham took the field but some short bowling and the old school wides rule had the Legends on 24 for 0 after 2 overs.
The rest of Abbas's spell - opening from the Pavilion End - was good and then Riaz made the breakthrough with the score on about 50. Sami was also pretty good. The Legends had won 7 of their 8 games this season and it was going to be very difficult to dismiss them for under 160 on such an immaculate strip. Zia induced a false leg-side clip, resulting in a neat catch for Abdul at Deep Square Leg. Nomads groundfielding was excellent and there were 2 classy catches from Keeper John Crossland, one off KK's first ball and one that could just about be called a diving effort, and a further catch - probably the best of the lot - from Abbas who ran a good 10 yards to pouch it at Long On. The bowlers kept their heads and bowled commendably few wides and a few close-looking decisions went against us. There were 2 brief glimmers of hope when the 4th wicket fell with 65 still needed and the 5th wicket went down with over 50 required. India's fast start meant they only needed to bat sensibly to close out the victory and they seemed to bat most of the way down, and despite Hasan coming on to bowl some spin, they finished the job off in some style with almost 10 overs to spare.
So probably our heaviest defeat of 2018 against a team who have had an excellent year (their skipper confirmed they often post 230 or 240) but overall our season has probably been a bit better than the final tally of 6 wins and 7 defeats would indicate. Most games have been close.
Man of the Match is once again Zia whose 46 gave our total some respectability and clinched the all-time batting record.
Fielder of the Day is John Crossland who took 2 good catches and stopped at least a dozen bullet throws in from all parts of the ground and saved a hatful of overthrows.
There was talk of arranging another fixture for 23/9 but I have not been able to do so, which is probably just as well as it has rained most of the day today (Sat 22/9) and is forecast to do so tomorrow in the form of thunderstorms.
Clapham Nomads 159 from 33.1 overs
Mahesh 26
Abdul 2
Darwin 9
Hasan 23
Zia 46
Riaz 0
Sami 6
KK 0
Abbas 6
Emil (capt) 1
John (wkt) 0
(Sub-Fielder - Nick)
F.O.W. - 12, 23, 78, 90, 90, 133, 144, 157, 159, 159
India Legends 161 for 5 from 30.3 overs
Nomads' bowling;
Abbas 6-0-23-0
Emil 3-0-20-0
Sami 3-0-16-0
Riaz 3-0-16-1
Zia 6-0-33-1
KK 6.5-0-35-3
Hasan 2-0-11-0
Abdul 1-0-5-0
Nomads lost by 5 wickets.
UPDATE - I have corrected the bowling figures as I have received the scorecard from the opposition.
A couple of bits in my report will have been slightly wrong. Abbas was the most economical bowler (his first over was quite expensive so his last 5 were excellent.)
JOHN'S REPORT -
Mahesh found a bit of form but otherwise only Hasan with 23 and Zia, who made 46 and beat the Nomads record for most runs scored in a season, made wothwhile contributions. When Zia was cught on the boundary, Nomads' hopes of getting a decent total went out of the window. Too much rests on these 2 to get runs.
159 was never likely to be enough and so it proved with India Legends winning by 5 wickets with nearly 10 overs to spare. JC.
AVERAGES - Now that I have got the correct figures for this match I will post the averages on here soon.
The Legends adopted the "anything down leg side is a wide" rule which was an interesting innovation - in the 1990s - and also allowed players to retire and return later in the innings.
Skipper Emil Todorow won the toss and batted. Mahesh, who has been struggling for runs, immediately showed very good determination and looked unshiftable at the crease. There was an unfortunate run out which saw Abdul depart with the score on 12 and then Darwin fell, having hit one resounding 4, on 23. A fine half-century stand between Mahesh and Hasan ended unfortunately with a superb jumping catch from Short Backward Point to dismiss the legendary all-rounder. 78 for 3.
Zia came out needing 46 to break Hasan's all-time record for runs in a season but Mahesh fell victim to the first of three unlucky "played on" dismissals in our innings as he seemed to have middled a leg glance but must have fetched it from outside off as the ball crashed into the base of leg stump. 90 for 4.
There were horses in the field beyond the ground and these creatures should have been nervous as Zia found his touch; sure enough, the ball soon sailed over the sightscreen and fence for 6. Next time I looked up, the beasts had removed themselves to the next field - possibly still within Riaz's range, though Riaz had fallen caught behind just after Mahesh when attempting to pull the wily leg-spinner Puneet.
Zia and Sami kept up some momentum but this was a phase of regular vociferous appeals and more cries of "plum / plumb" than Covent Garden Fruit and Veg market. In truth, only one of these shouts was plumb and this was duly given; Sami trapped in front of Off and Middle for 6.
Zia was bearing down on the record, and a 7th successive half-century, and when we called to scorer Crossland for an update, he confirmed that the star middle order player was on 46 and had achieved the record. As if to celebrate, he went for one of his massive straight hits but, surprisingly, it dipped into the hands of a swooping Long Off. 693 runs in a season, an outstanding performance and 7 successive scores of over 45 is incredible - some players (NL) have not achieved half of these 45 plusses in 29 seasons, never mind in consecutive games.
Before this, KK and Abbas had both been unlucky to be out Played On.
By now only Emil and John remained and it was hoped they might provide some entertainment and drama as they did in this fixture last year. Sadly it was not to be as Emil tried to pull the wrong ball and we were all out for 159 with 6.1 overs unused and Wides on 33 being the second top scorer.
After a very light tea, Clapham took the field but some short bowling and the old school wides rule had the Legends on 24 for 0 after 2 overs.
The rest of Abbas's spell - opening from the Pavilion End - was good and then Riaz made the breakthrough with the score on about 50. Sami was also pretty good. The Legends had won 7 of their 8 games this season and it was going to be very difficult to dismiss them for under 160 on such an immaculate strip. Zia induced a false leg-side clip, resulting in a neat catch for Abdul at Deep Square Leg. Nomads groundfielding was excellent and there were 2 classy catches from Keeper John Crossland, one off KK's first ball and one that could just about be called a diving effort, and a further catch - probably the best of the lot - from Abbas who ran a good 10 yards to pouch it at Long On. The bowlers kept their heads and bowled commendably few wides and a few close-looking decisions went against us. There were 2 brief glimmers of hope when the 4th wicket fell with 65 still needed and the 5th wicket went down with over 50 required. India's fast start meant they only needed to bat sensibly to close out the victory and they seemed to bat most of the way down, and despite Hasan coming on to bowl some spin, they finished the job off in some style with almost 10 overs to spare.
So probably our heaviest defeat of 2018 against a team who have had an excellent year (their skipper confirmed they often post 230 or 240) but overall our season has probably been a bit better than the final tally of 6 wins and 7 defeats would indicate. Most games have been close.
Man of the Match is once again Zia whose 46 gave our total some respectability and clinched the all-time batting record.
Fielder of the Day is John Crossland who took 2 good catches and stopped at least a dozen bullet throws in from all parts of the ground and saved a hatful of overthrows.
There was talk of arranging another fixture for 23/9 but I have not been able to do so, which is probably just as well as it has rained most of the day today (Sat 22/9) and is forecast to do so tomorrow in the form of thunderstorms.
Clapham Nomads 159 from 33.1 overs
Mahesh 26
Abdul 2
Darwin 9
Hasan 23
Zia 46
Riaz 0
Sami 6
KK 0
Abbas 6
Emil (capt) 1
John (wkt) 0
(Sub-Fielder - Nick)
F.O.W. - 12, 23, 78, 90, 90, 133, 144, 157, 159, 159
India Legends 161 for 5 from 30.3 overs
Nomads' bowling;
Abbas 6-0-23-0
Emil 3-0-20-0
Sami 3-0-16-0
Riaz 3-0-16-1
Zia 6-0-33-1
KK 6.5-0-35-3
Hasan 2-0-11-0
Abdul 1-0-5-0
Nomads lost by 5 wickets.
UPDATE - I have corrected the bowling figures as I have received the scorecard from the opposition.
A couple of bits in my report will have been slightly wrong. Abbas was the most economical bowler (his first over was quite expensive so his last 5 were excellent.)
JOHN'S REPORT -
Mahesh found a bit of form but otherwise only Hasan with 23 and Zia, who made 46 and beat the Nomads record for most runs scored in a season, made wothwhile contributions. When Zia was cught on the boundary, Nomads' hopes of getting a decent total went out of the window. Too much rests on these 2 to get runs.
159 was never likely to be enough and so it proved with India Legends winning by 5 wickets with nearly 10 overs to spare. JC.
AVERAGES - Now that I have got the correct figures for this match I will post the averages on here soon.
Saturday 15 September 2018
John's report on last game and Zia's total runs etc.
I have gone through the scorebooks and found that Zia has scored 647 runs this season. The missing score was, surprisingly, 0 against Surbiton Imperials and the score I was guessing as 60 (against Gentlemen of Hampstead) was 61. The all-time record for runs scored by one player for Nomads in a season is held by Hasan with 692 runs in 2010.
John also made a report for last Sunday's win over Barnes Occasionals. Here it is;
"Nomads' game against Barnes Occasionals was, in some respects, similar to the previous game at Harrow. This time batting first, the Nomads lost 3 early wickets but then came another huge partnership between Hasan and Zia who is a run machine at the moment. Last week (against Harrow) the pair scored on an unbeaten 157, a club record for the 5th wicket. This time they put on 142 for the 4th wicket with Zia making 91 and Hasan 60. The Nomads finished on 228 for 7 off 35 overs, a score which Barnes Occasionals were unlikely to get. For a change, Nomads held all their catches and Barnes were all out for 145 in the final over of the game.
Strangely enough, 228 was the same score that Harrow made against the Nomads on 2nd September." JC
John also made a report for last Sunday's win over Barnes Occasionals. Here it is;
"Nomads' game against Barnes Occasionals was, in some respects, similar to the previous game at Harrow. This time batting first, the Nomads lost 3 early wickets but then came another huge partnership between Hasan and Zia who is a run machine at the moment. Last week (against Harrow) the pair scored on an unbeaten 157, a club record for the 5th wicket. This time they put on 142 for the 4th wicket with Zia making 91 and Hasan 60. The Nomads finished on 228 for 7 off 35 overs, a score which Barnes Occasionals were unlikely to get. For a change, Nomads held all their catches and Barnes were all out for 145 in the final over of the game.
Strangely enough, 228 was the same score that Harrow made against the Nomads on 2nd September." JC
Tuesday 11 September 2018
Clapham Nomads v Barnes Occasionals - 9/9/18
For our last home match of the season, Nomads entertained our oldest cricketing friends Barnes Occasionals at a sunny but somehow still bleak Joseph Hood Rec.
Several of us (Emil, John and I) first met the Occasionals back in 1991 when we were all young (ish). I recently found a results list from the Open University cc who we used to play for and, to disprove that old cliche, "the good old days" found that we lost by 7 wickets to Barnes on our terrible pitch (a public park) Bishops Park - in the shadow of Fulham football ground. I can remember literally nothing about this match but it was the 4th defeat in a run of 12 successive losses for Open University and I am guessing that OU captain Dave Hunter may have had some choice words to say about our performance.
The line-ups would have been something like; OU - Graeme Douglas (wkt), Nick Lefebve, Peter Price, Alan Cotter, Dave Hunter (capt), Peter King, Clive Howard, Joe Chance, John Crossland, Emil Todorow, Nasser........ Barnes would probably have contained Hogg (A), Hogg (O), Seed, Flower, Williams, Webster, Mundy, Lichfield, Hanmer, Tagg..... give or take one or two of these.
Anyway, enough false nostalgia. A rather more robust Nomads line up took the field looking to make it 6 wins and 6 defeats this season. Emil called correctly and chose to bat but we started poorly again. After playing one of the shots of the day - a feather-light leg glance, Mahesh unfortunately picked out the only fielder in a wide arc on the leg side and departed. A slight recovery took us up to 28 but Darwin and Abdul departed in quick succession leaving us in peril at 30 for 3. This brought Hasan and Zia together - could they do it again? They needed to. They did not disappoint and brilliant and remorseless batting added 142 for the 4th wicket. Zia was finally prised out on 91, his 6th successive half-century and Hasan - who has been having a fine season himself - made 60.
170-odd for 5 and we still needed a few more to make it safe as Barnes appeared pretty strong, and good rapid scoring from Abbas, Safi, Sami and KK took us up to 228 for 7 off the full 35. The wickets were shared out and inevitably Keith Seed - who has rarely come away empty-handed against OU or Nomads over the years - pitched in with 2 late strikes.
A quick strike by Emil Todorow (with the help of a nice catch from Darwin) brought on scrutiny of Emil's classical bowling action. Some of the Occasionals speculated that our skipper might be delivering the ball with both his feet off the ground - a feat demanding great athleticism, which admittedly Todorow does possess - and there was even a hopeful and plaintive cry of "No ball" from one of the spectators. It seems clear though that, although Emil does perfom a little skip in his penultimate stride, at least one boot is firmly planted on the turf at the point of delivery. Thank Goodness. It must be hard enough facing Emil anyway; imagine how disconcerting an airborne Todorow would be. Anyway, Emil soared above it all and bowled pretty well, as did Sami at the other end, but Barnes made serene progress with Roger Price, as ever, looking dangerous. At 66, however, Price was adjudged LBW, possibly a little harshly. His 2nd wicket partner soon followed, nicely caught by Sami in the deep, and this just about made us safe. There was some good batting further down from Barnes, particularly from Nick Benz, but excellent catching from Nomads - a superb diving caught and bowled from Abbas and a juggling effort from Sami would have kept the wickets section of the scoreboard rolling (if only we owned a scoreboard.) There was a brilliant direct hit by Zia from 20 yards back and last man Keith Seed was bowled by Safi in the final over in near-darkness to wrap up a solid victory for Clapham. KK was the top wicket-taker with 3. I do think though that, had it been a time match - which is Barnes' preference - the Away side could probably have secured a draw. Anyway, this good win puts Nomads on 6 wins and 6 defeats with all to play for in our final match on Sunday against India Legends.
In the pub afterwards, we found out that Barnes have at least 4 or 5 professional players of the French Horn (and that is not a euphemism.) Nomads cannot match that, although we are quite harmonious on the pitch these days; but in our early days we did have a classical cellist, a jazz composer and a man who had made several appearances on Top of the Pops all in the same line-up.
Clapham Nomads 228 for 7 beat Barnes Occasionals 145 by 83 runs.
Man of the Match - Zia (he has had the most incredible season. I will try to work back through the reports and calculate how many runs he has scored - it must be near a club record.).... Update.... I have been pretty useless at updating this blog this year and I don't have scores for a couple of the matches but Zia's scores have been; 31 not out, 40 not out, 53, ??, 26 not out, 0, 51, 105 not out, approximately 60, 85, 104 not out, 91. This is a total of 646 runs at an average of 92.29. I will get the missing scores from John and the true figure is likely to be about 655 at an average in the mid to high 80s. I think the club record for runs scored in a seaon is 668 (Hasan last year.) .... I HAVE UPDATED THIS IN A NEW POST... Nick.
Fielder of the Day - Sami
Full scores to follow
Clapham Nomads 228 for 7 from 35 overs
Mahesh 2
Abdul 20
Darwin 7
Hasan 60
Zia 91
Safi 5
Abbas 9
KK 9 not out
Sami 10 not out
Did not bat; Emil (capt), John (wkt)
F.O.W. - 3, 28, 30, 172, 179, 195, 215
Barnes Occasionals 145 from 34.4 overs (Benz 33, Prasad 35, Price 23)
Nomads' bowling;
Sami 7-2-20-0
Emil 5-0-28-1
KK 7-2-18-3
Abbas 7-0-26-2
Zia 3-0-12-0
Hasan 3-0-19-1
Safi 2.4-0-16-1
F.O.W. - 3, 66, 69, 70, 73, 82, 93, 117, 145, 145
Clapham Nomads won by 83 runs.
Last game of the season this Sunday so after that I will update all the other matches on this blog and do the averages etc. NL
Several of us (Emil, John and I) first met the Occasionals back in 1991 when we were all young (ish). I recently found a results list from the Open University cc who we used to play for and, to disprove that old cliche, "the good old days" found that we lost by 7 wickets to Barnes on our terrible pitch (a public park) Bishops Park - in the shadow of Fulham football ground. I can remember literally nothing about this match but it was the 4th defeat in a run of 12 successive losses for Open University and I am guessing that OU captain Dave Hunter may have had some choice words to say about our performance.
The line-ups would have been something like; OU - Graeme Douglas (wkt), Nick Lefebve, Peter Price, Alan Cotter, Dave Hunter (capt), Peter King, Clive Howard, Joe Chance, John Crossland, Emil Todorow, Nasser........ Barnes would probably have contained Hogg (A), Hogg (O), Seed, Flower, Williams, Webster, Mundy, Lichfield, Hanmer, Tagg..... give or take one or two of these.
Anyway, enough false nostalgia. A rather more robust Nomads line up took the field looking to make it 6 wins and 6 defeats this season. Emil called correctly and chose to bat but we started poorly again. After playing one of the shots of the day - a feather-light leg glance, Mahesh unfortunately picked out the only fielder in a wide arc on the leg side and departed. A slight recovery took us up to 28 but Darwin and Abdul departed in quick succession leaving us in peril at 30 for 3. This brought Hasan and Zia together - could they do it again? They needed to. They did not disappoint and brilliant and remorseless batting added 142 for the 4th wicket. Zia was finally prised out on 91, his 6th successive half-century and Hasan - who has been having a fine season himself - made 60.
170-odd for 5 and we still needed a few more to make it safe as Barnes appeared pretty strong, and good rapid scoring from Abbas, Safi, Sami and KK took us up to 228 for 7 off the full 35. The wickets were shared out and inevitably Keith Seed - who has rarely come away empty-handed against OU or Nomads over the years - pitched in with 2 late strikes.
A quick strike by Emil Todorow (with the help of a nice catch from Darwin) brought on scrutiny of Emil's classical bowling action. Some of the Occasionals speculated that our skipper might be delivering the ball with both his feet off the ground - a feat demanding great athleticism, which admittedly Todorow does possess - and there was even a hopeful and plaintive cry of "No ball" from one of the spectators. It seems clear though that, although Emil does perfom a little skip in his penultimate stride, at least one boot is firmly planted on the turf at the point of delivery. Thank Goodness. It must be hard enough facing Emil anyway; imagine how disconcerting an airborne Todorow would be. Anyway, Emil soared above it all and bowled pretty well, as did Sami at the other end, but Barnes made serene progress with Roger Price, as ever, looking dangerous. At 66, however, Price was adjudged LBW, possibly a little harshly. His 2nd wicket partner soon followed, nicely caught by Sami in the deep, and this just about made us safe. There was some good batting further down from Barnes, particularly from Nick Benz, but excellent catching from Nomads - a superb diving caught and bowled from Abbas and a juggling effort from Sami would have kept the wickets section of the scoreboard rolling (if only we owned a scoreboard.) There was a brilliant direct hit by Zia from 20 yards back and last man Keith Seed was bowled by Safi in the final over in near-darkness to wrap up a solid victory for Clapham. KK was the top wicket-taker with 3. I do think though that, had it been a time match - which is Barnes' preference - the Away side could probably have secured a draw. Anyway, this good win puts Nomads on 6 wins and 6 defeats with all to play for in our final match on Sunday against India Legends.
In the pub afterwards, we found out that Barnes have at least 4 or 5 professional players of the French Horn (and that is not a euphemism.) Nomads cannot match that, although we are quite harmonious on the pitch these days; but in our early days we did have a classical cellist, a jazz composer and a man who had made several appearances on Top of the Pops all in the same line-up.
Clapham Nomads 228 for 7 beat Barnes Occasionals 145 by 83 runs.
Man of the Match - Zia (he has had the most incredible season. I will try to work back through the reports and calculate how many runs he has scored - it must be near a club record.).... Update.... I have been pretty useless at updating this blog this year and I don't have scores for a couple of the matches but Zia's scores have been; 31 not out, 40 not out, 53, ??, 26 not out, 0, 51, 105 not out, approximately 60, 85, 104 not out, 91. This is a total of 646 runs at an average of 92.29. I will get the missing scores from John and the true figure is likely to be about 655 at an average in the mid to high 80s. I think the club record for runs scored in a seaon is 668 (Hasan last year.) .... I HAVE UPDATED THIS IN A NEW POST... Nick.
Fielder of the Day - Sami
Full scores to follow
Clapham Nomads 228 for 7 from 35 overs
Mahesh 2
Abdul 20
Darwin 7
Hasan 60
Zia 91
Safi 5
Abbas 9
KK 9 not out
Sami 10 not out
Did not bat; Emil (capt), John (wkt)
F.O.W. - 3, 28, 30, 172, 179, 195, 215
Barnes Occasionals 145 from 34.4 overs (Benz 33, Prasad 35, Price 23)
Nomads' bowling;
Sami 7-2-20-0
Emil 5-0-28-1
KK 7-2-18-3
Abbas 7-0-26-2
Zia 3-0-12-0
Hasan 3-0-19-1
Safi 2.4-0-16-1
F.O.W. - 3, 66, 69, 70, 73, 82, 93, 117, 145, 145
Clapham Nomads won by 83 runs.
Last game of the season this Sunday so after that I will update all the other matches on this blog and do the averages etc. NL
Monday 10 September 2018
Harrow v Clapham Nomads - 2/9/18
Nomads continued our tour of the more picturesque grounds of Middlesex with a trip to the Sudbury Hill home of Harrow cc. The facilities were great, including a bar and a sloping pitch and we had a chance to play with a remote-controlled electronic scoreboard.
The home side were Harrow 4th eleven, basically the fathers of players in their youth team. As expected they were pretty sound and played mainly good orthodox cricket shots after they won the toss and chose to bat in the searing heat.
There was an early wicket for Nomads with an acrobatic diving catch from slip specialist Mahesh Vyas.
Harrow then pushed on and, for most of the innings, the scoring rate fluctuated between 5 and 5.5 per over. Nomads' fielding was a little ragged before drinks and a few chances went down but we gradually improved and some of the ground-fielding towards the end was excellent; Abbas, Safi and Darwin spring to mind for some great stops and commitment and there was a direct hit from Hasan with just one stump to aim at. Abdul also hit the stumps from three quarters of the way back to the boundary but the batsman had just made his ground.
After around 27 overs (with 8 to go) Harrow were on about 155 for 4 but they had wickets in hand and some of Nomads premier bowling options had been used up. I will hand over to John for his report....
........" On a good batting wicket, Harrow's innings had contributions of 70, 66 and a quickfire 24 not out near the end to bring their total up to 228 for 5 off 35 overs. It looked a pretty formidable score.
In reply, Nomads lost 2 wickets in the first over without a run on the board and then another wicket on 25. Abdul and Hasan added 50 before Abdul was bowled off his arm for 26. This brought in Zia and, together with Hasan, he changed the course of the game as they added 157 - a Nomads record for the 5th wicket. Hasan and Zia were both unbeaten, with 74 and 104 respectively, at the finish as Nomads wrapped it up with nearly 3 overs to spare. Zia's form with the bat in recent weeks has been amazing. He hit 3 sixes and 15 fours in his century but Hasan was a bit more restrained in his innings and was happy to let Zia have more of the strike. This, by the way, was Nomads' first win for several weeks although we could and should have won a couple of the recent games if catches had been taken and other things had gone our way." JC.
So, an excellent victory and some of the best batting ever seen from Nomads on a pitch that did have a little help for the bowlers at times. When either the second or third wicket fell, I heard one of the Harrow fielders remark; "Oh well, at least they turned up." We certainly did, and several club records were broken. The 5-wicket stand record which broke my treasured record, shared with Hasan, for the 5th wicket of about 138 (when the fifty partnership came up on that day in 2007, I was still on 0); also probably the fastest century scored for Nomads. Additionally, it was Zia's 5th successive half-century (2 of them were converted into tons) which is quite a rare feat in any form of cricket.
Clapham Nomads won by 6 wickets.
Scores to follow.
Man of the Match - Zia
Fielder of the Day - Mahesh.
The home side were Harrow 4th eleven, basically the fathers of players in their youth team. As expected they were pretty sound and played mainly good orthodox cricket shots after they won the toss and chose to bat in the searing heat.
There was an early wicket for Nomads with an acrobatic diving catch from slip specialist Mahesh Vyas.
Harrow then pushed on and, for most of the innings, the scoring rate fluctuated between 5 and 5.5 per over. Nomads' fielding was a little ragged before drinks and a few chances went down but we gradually improved and some of the ground-fielding towards the end was excellent; Abbas, Safi and Darwin spring to mind for some great stops and commitment and there was a direct hit from Hasan with just one stump to aim at. Abdul also hit the stumps from three quarters of the way back to the boundary but the batsman had just made his ground.
After around 27 overs (with 8 to go) Harrow were on about 155 for 4 but they had wickets in hand and some of Nomads premier bowling options had been used up. I will hand over to John for his report....
........" On a good batting wicket, Harrow's innings had contributions of 70, 66 and a quickfire 24 not out near the end to bring their total up to 228 for 5 off 35 overs. It looked a pretty formidable score.
In reply, Nomads lost 2 wickets in the first over without a run on the board and then another wicket on 25. Abdul and Hasan added 50 before Abdul was bowled off his arm for 26. This brought in Zia and, together with Hasan, he changed the course of the game as they added 157 - a Nomads record for the 5th wicket. Hasan and Zia were both unbeaten, with 74 and 104 respectively, at the finish as Nomads wrapped it up with nearly 3 overs to spare. Zia's form with the bat in recent weeks has been amazing. He hit 3 sixes and 15 fours in his century but Hasan was a bit more restrained in his innings and was happy to let Zia have more of the strike. This, by the way, was Nomads' first win for several weeks although we could and should have won a couple of the recent games if catches had been taken and other things had gone our way." JC.
So, an excellent victory and some of the best batting ever seen from Nomads on a pitch that did have a little help for the bowlers at times. When either the second or third wicket fell, I heard one of the Harrow fielders remark; "Oh well, at least they turned up." We certainly did, and several club records were broken. The 5-wicket stand record which broke my treasured record, shared with Hasan, for the 5th wicket of about 138 (when the fifty partnership came up on that day in 2007, I was still on 0); also probably the fastest century scored for Nomads. Additionally, it was Zia's 5th successive half-century (2 of them were converted into tons) which is quite a rare feat in any form of cricket.
Clapham Nomads won by 6 wickets.
Scores to follow.
Man of the Match - Zia
Fielder of the Day - Mahesh.
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