Bec Old Boys v Clapham Nomads - 5/6/11

A high-class encounter seemed on the cards as unbeaten Nomads made the arduous journey down to South Cheam to take on the Bec Old Boys (or Be Cold Boys as some internet search engines have it - appropriately given the weather.)
Bec are a fine side and chased down our total of 191 in only 30 overs last year. They contain a sprinkling of Saturday League players who were reminded by Wicketkeeper Chez Browne at the start; "remember lads, yesterday was business; today is pleasure." The Old Boys looked distinctly unconvinced by this as they wiped the drizzle from the hair.
In the absence of regular opener Mark Bradshaw, Prasanth Pattiyil joined Mahesh Vyas at the wicket to face an all-spin opening attack of Brian Gittens and Peter Seaden. Bowling right-arm round the wicket off-spin, Gittens was the more awkward of the two with regular off-spin and a good Arm Ball. His early LBW shout against Vyas was probably missing off, but not by a lot. Both opening bowlers did have a tendency to overpitch and it was from full tosses that Nomads' openers scored a fair proportion of their runs. Our lads cracked along at 6 an over; the highlight was a fine pushed cut through Cover Point from Pattiyil which was a carbon copy of the shot often played by Mark Bradshaw. Vyas also seized well on anything loose and the only blemishes on an excellent opening stand were a couple of mix-ups running between the wickets. At one point, Umpire Todorow amusingly abandoned his role as umpire for a moment in mid-over and called the pair together for a mid-pitch conference. You didn't get that with Dickie Bird.
Gittens made the breakthough in the 7th over with Vyas playing across to a straight one that kept a little low. 37 for 1 was a good start and when Jim Joyce smote his second ball out of the screws over Square Leg's head for 4, it looked radiantly healthy.
Joyce had found his timing immediately but unfortunately whacked a Seaden delivery straight to Deep Mid-Wicket in the next over and fell for 4.
Hassan Khan joined Pattiyil and the pair upped the scoring rate against Gittens from 3.5 an over off his first 4, to almost 9 an over from his last 3. Seaden was replaced by Nav Jaswal as the score raced through the 50s and 60s. Jaswal bowled with good pace last year and, though he didn't reach this same speed this time, he accounted for Prasanth Pattiyil. A slightly unlucky wicket as the batsman's stump was just clipped behind his legs from a ball that kept low, depriving Prasanth of the second successive 50 that seemed likely.
Sumith Prasanna maintained the momentum with a quick-fire 14 including 3 boundaries. Hassan Khan was looking solid but the brakes were put on our scoring rate by the introduction after 14 overs of Bec's 2 League bowlers; Khaled Muhammed and Mason. In the last over before drinks the wily First Team bowler Muhammed, a leg-spinner with plenty of variation and a dangerous quicker ball, bowled Sumith and, 2 balls later, bowled last week's batting hero Zia.
Suddenly we were 104 for 5 from 17 overs and No 7 Nick Lefebve was ordered to play the anchor role by skipper Todorow and Tactical Advisor John Crossland. Lefebve was only too willing to do this against some probing slow bowling but his defensive mindset seemed to rub off on his partner Hassan, who is normally full of shots at this stage of an innings. The plan was to see off the dangerous-looking Muhammed - which was achieved, and milk some runs from Mason - which was not so easy as the bowler produced an excellent spell of slow-medium bowling with regular yorkers. The partnership realised 8 off 38 balls and only the steady drizzle prevented spectators from enjoying an afternoon nap. Bec's fielders maintained an impressive level of enthusiasm though, with one chap appealing several times before the ball had even reached the batsman.
Mason finally accounted for Hassan with possibly the ball of the day; a sharp off-cutter which cramped the batsman and made him edge an attempted cut onto his own stumps. Mason followed up by bowling Abdul first ball. Riaz provided some much-needed entertainment with 3 improvised fours off Muhammed who was beginning to struggle bowling with a wet ball. Batting was also becoming tricky in the conditions. Riaz fell to Mason's last ball. Emil Todorow joined Lefebve and such batting basics as nimble footwork and eyesight were near to impossible as the bespectacled pair peered out in search of the ball. Lefebve was having to wipe his glasses every couple of balls by now and, when offered the chance to go off for rain, he showed his smartest footwork off the day by tuning on his heel instantly and striding off.
An early tea was taken but the rain just got steadier and the game was called off around 5 o'clock. We joined Old Boys for some excellent hospitality in their upstairs bar, including complimentary Cava for our lads to celebrate maintaining our unbeaten record.
I can only guess at what the result would have been. If I had to set a Betting Spread for our final total it would be 138-140 and I have a hunch Bec's batsmen might just have had the experience to chase this successfully with conditions not favouring our quicker bowlers, but who knows...
Man of the Match is Prasanth Pattiyil who produced the highest score and possibly the most impressive batting of the day. For the second match in a row he was a little unlucky to be out.

CLAPHAM NOMADS - 129 for 8 from 28.3 overs

M. Vyas b Gittens 14
P. Pattiyil b Jaswal 33
J. Joyce c ? b Seaden 4
H. Khan b Mason 32
S. Prasanna b Muhammed 14
Zia b Muhammed 0
N. Lefebve not out 6
A. Khan b Mason 0
R. Khan c Jaswal b Mason 14
E. Todorow not out 0
Did not bat; J. Crossland

F.O.W. - 37, 42, 80, 104, 104, 112, 112, 128

Match abandoned as a draw