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.
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