Dulwich v Clapham Nomads - 9/9/12

Apologies for the delay in compiling this report.  After the game, a certain person was banging on and on and on about this defeat as if we had, collectively, insulted the good name of Sunday cricket and it had depressed me a bit.  Actually, despite an admittedly below par performance, it was a reasonably pleasant day out and I was happy we had fielded a full team on a sunny day - 2 aspects that have been a bit lacking this season.
I must admit Nomads' bowling and fielding were not the best.  Hassan was ok if not quite at his excellent best.  Riaz was probably the pick of the bowlers but the highlight for me was Emil Todorow getting though 7 tight overs despite being in considerable pain from his back.  The skipper hadn't been intending to bring himself on to bowl but when he saw how things were going, he had to.  For some reason several Nomads had a collective attack of the yips and we bowled at least 10 high No Balls, 8 of which went past wicketkeeper Crossland to the boundary for 5.  At times the aerial bombardment was so intense that Todorow's team role was less of a captain and more of a Squadron Leader or Wing Commander - he himself was innocent of any part in this strafing, I must point out.  Abdul did have an injury as well so credit to him for getting though 5 overs.
As ever, Dulwich had some fine and technically correct young batsmen who stroked and pushed their way up to the highest total their club has made against Nomads.  Our fielding was poor.  John Crossland wrote enigmatically in the scorebook; "very poor fielding - I'm not including everyone."  Certainly he couldn't have been including Mahesh Vyas who took a stunning diving catch at Short Mid-Wicket, but the mis-fields and crazy overthrows and sluggishness were such that Dulwich should probably have added at least 20 to their score.
Darwin took the intitiative in Nomads' reply with 13 at better than a run a ball before lofting a catch in the 5th over.  Prasanth joined Mahesh and 30 runs were put on, mostly by the opener, but sketchy running between the wickets was a feature of this stand and, almost inevitably, a run out reduced us to a still fair 50 for 2. Dulwich skipper Tony Ebert turned to spin; himself and 3 youngsters - 2 of them leggies.  Ebert deceived Vyas with flight for wicket 3.  Hassan was still there but, despite a flamboyant cameo 9 from Riaz, we were falling behind the asking rate.  When No. 6 Nick Lefebve strolled out with the asking rate above 8 an over, Hassan became aware of the size of his task and gave one of the young spinners a Bolt-like charge, only to be stumped.  After this, our effort petered out rapidly.  Todorow hit an emphatic four and Lefebve blocked everything in defiance of the encroaching ring of fielders.  Last man Crossland, who wrote in the book; "batting? What batting?", gave his wicket away with a tame flick to Square Leg but at least we had reached 100.  I would have liked to have batted on longer and test my rusty technique against spin.  After all, some of us have had precious little batting this summer; but one of my colleagues seemed more intent on getting to the bar and starting the moaning.  Actually it was pleasant in the bar.  We had a chat with several Dulwich players including their star man who made an accomplished 65 and also Dulwich coaching supremo John Lawrence who unfortunately had had to miss the match itself as he was reporting on the Godalming v Dulwich Hamlet FA Cup tie for Non-League Soccer Weekly.


Dulwich 214 for 6 from 35 overs

H. Khan  7-1-36-0
Abdul Khan  5-1-36-0
Abbas Khan  4-0-47-1
Asad  7-0-33-2
E. Todorow  7-0-24-0
R. Khan  5-0-23-3

Clapham Nomads  100 from 26.2 overs

M. Vyas   21
Darwin   13
P. Pattiyil   4
H. Khan   19
R. Khan   9
N. Lefebve  not out 4
Abdul Khan  0
E. Todorow   4
Abbas Khan   6
Asad   0
J. Crossland   1

F.O.W. - 20. 50, 64, 78, 78, 78, 84, 95, 97, 100

Clapham Nomads lost by 114 runs

Man of the Match - Emil Todorow
Fielder of the Day - Mahesh Vyas