Clapham Nomads v Wimbledon Corinthians - 15/5/11

Our second opponents of the season were old rivals Wimbledon (formerly Morden) Corinthians, with whom we stand 1 win apiece from 2 games, but a team who absolutely hammered us by 9 wickets in our last encounter 5 years ago. In arranging this fixture, though, Corinthians' supremo Jim Patel had promised that most of their South Africans had left since 2006.
When we arrived at our temporary Riverside home, Barn Elms, it was clear that Corinthians had lost none of their noted professionalism and will to win as the whole team was immersed in a very high octane net session. Meanwhile, Nomads studied the various pitches on offer. Unfortunately the only untouched strip was kids' length and so we had to opt for a track that showed signs of use.
Skipper Todorow won the toss but, against his will, had to bat first due to several late arrivals.
Corinthians' opening bowlers started brightly and pretty accurately. There were immediate signs of irregular low bounce and a cloud of despondency settled over Nomads as we realised that, with our middle order stuck in a car near Putney, grim survival was our immediate aim and not an easy one.
Mahesh Vyas was bowled by a yorker early on and Mark Bradshaw and No. 3 Prasanth Pattiyil set about clinging on and salvaging what scraps were available. Determination took them through to the 8th over when Pattiyil was unlucky to play on off the inside edge to a ball that kept low. By now Nomads had a full team but, at 15 for 2, the mood had hardly lifted and there were whispers that we would do well to reach 60. This did not appear a situation tailor-made for No. 4 Jim Joyce, a cavalier and flamboyant shotmaker, but Joyce applied himself well, saving most of his big shots for anything short and towards the leg. He played 2 cracking pulls through mid-wicket off 1st changer Steve O'Neill, a crafty veteran of the South London amateur scene, and this gave the scoreboard some much-needed impetus. At the other end, Mark Bradshaw was playing a vital hand, grafting away and taking very few chances. It began to become clear that few balls that were actually on the stumps were bouncing all that irregularly and we started to hope that we could at least get close to batting out the full 35 overs. Drinks were taken at 56 for 2 off 18.
Joyce found another gear after the break, playing shot after shot with a good clean middle, scoring mainly between straight and mid-wicket. He raced to 50 and took 3 boundaries off the first over from Corinthians' left-arm spinner, who was the only bowler to look like prising out our man; a catch going down in the deep and a leg-before shout adjudged to have just possibly bounced three times. Mark Bradshaw continued to provide valuable support and never looked like being out. Joyce reached 97 and scorer John Crossland urged spectators not to tell him he was close to a century. The crowd then gave the game away by rapturously applauding a boundary and yelling "100" before realising that Bradshaw had played the shot. The landmark was soon achieved in any case - Jim's first for the Nomads. He did once score 232 and the rumour goes that this was in a 20-20 match.
Mark was out shortly before the end to wrap up an epic partnership of 145 which is not the highest in Nomads' history but, given the treacherous wicket, the decent bowling and the parlous position at which it commenced, may be one of the finest. Nomads closed shortly after on 163 for 3 from the full 35 and we sensed that we may need every one of those runs against a strong-looking Corinthians batting side.
Nomads bowling line-up appeared depleted and it was imperative to strike early. A quick breakthrough came when Hassan Khan got one to keep low, awkwardly for the very tall batsman. Another wicket fell quickly but Nomads then had a poor 20 minutes in the field, dropping 2 regulation catches and making a string of errors on the ground. The South African Brendan was the beneficiary of several of these mistakes and he began to look as if he might capitalise with some clean, straight groundshots. It took a piece of brilliance from second-change bowler Darwin to finally dismiss him, with an excellent caught and bowled an inch or two from the turf. By this time Emil Todorow had taken his customary two wickets in two balls. The second of which he appeared to achieve by force of personality as the batsman, no mug judging by his stance and his bowling earlier on, just backed away to an ordinary good-length ball on the stumps. To be fair to the batsman it was quite a windy day and he may have been distracted by Emil's hair fluttering in the breeze. Once again there was no hat-trick but it is surely just a matter of time and the celebrations and free drinks are eagerly anticipated.
There was no room for complacency as Corinthians' No. 6 began to crack the ball around very stylishly from the word go. Had he lasted a few more overs it could have been fatal to our cause but fortunately a good pressure catch from Jim Joyce in the deep sent him on his way.
Abdul Khan bowled a good 7-over spell at below the required run-rate. Sumith Prasanna also prevented Wimbledon from accelerating too drastically. 50 were needed with 9 overs to go, and around 32 from 5. Wickets were falling steadily but we were running out of regular bowlers and it seemed Corinthians batted all the way down to No. 11 O'Neill. Bravely, Prasanth Pattiyil, who has not been a regular bowler for the past year or so, showed no hint of nerves and sent down some good accurate medium pace and finished an exciting game off with 2 quick wickets. Nomads winning by a margin of 14 runs.
This was an excellent victory, set up by some outstanding batting. An under-strength bowling line-up performed well to defend our total and it was good practice in finishing off a game in a tight situation. Hopefully this bodes well for our 29th May match against Energy Exiles, a fixture that usually produces a close finish.
Jim Joyce is certainly the only Nomads player to play football for a team that has won the FA Cup (Clapham Rovers), so it was fitting that he wins the Man of the Match award on Cup Final weekend, a mere 131 years after Rovers provided the finest sporting moment in Clapham's history (well, until Andrew West took 5 wickets against Phoenix that is.) Fielder of the day is Darwin again, that's 4 catches in 2 games for Nomads' safest pair of hands. Speaking of safe hands, John Crossland kept well again on another tricky pitch and flung himself full-length on at least one occasion to save a run or two, a feat that was matched this week by his neighbour at First Slip, Mahesh Vyas. The gymnastic prowess shown by these two reminds me a little bit of Lyudmilla Tourischeva (and they may even be old enough to know what I am talking about.)

Clapham Nomads 163 for 3 from 35 overs;

M. Bradshaw 36
M. Vyas 0
P. Pattiyil 3
J. Joyce 109 not out
S. Prasanna 2 not out

Did not bat; H. Khan, Darwin, A.Khan, N. Lefebve, E. Todorow, J.Crossland

F.O.W. - 4, 15, 160

Wimbledon Corinthians 149 all out from approximately 33 overs

(Bowling Figues will follow when I have managed to copy the opposition's score book.)

Nomads won by 14 runs