Surbiton Imperials v Clapham Nomads - 9/6/13

I should have known chaos was on the way when Imperials requested a 1 pm start for this distant fixture and sure enough, Emil's car, which is not really used to action this early in the morning, broke down a mile from the ground.  The match ball was then lost as John set off to look for a shop to buy lunch (Thames Ditton on a Sunday is not exactly retail Nirvana).  Anyway, stand-in captain Hassan Khan conducted the preliminaries and Nomads took to the field with 10 players and an old ball.  Khan and Andrew West did a fine job and kept the runs down to about 17 off the first 8 overs but there is something remorseless about Surbiton's batting this season, even missing their star opener Jonny Rosenthal.  Wickets for Hassan and Zia kept us in the game with the home side on 49 for 2 but Surbiton then just ground out one of their big scores.  Emil finally arrived but was understandably not quite at his best.  There were 2 wickets for Abbas and 2 run outs courtesy of Hassan and Andrew but ordinary fielding and several dropped catches eased Imperials' path up to 195 (with only 9 men.,)
Things worsened for Nomads with Mahesh bowled for 4 early on, an edge from stand-in No. 3 Nick Lefebve was snapped up one-handed by the wicketkeeper for 1 and, worst of all, Hassan was caught, again by the keeper, 2nd ball.  Nomads were 23 for 3.  I had to leave for work at this point and all I could hear as I limped to the station were the shouts of Imperials' bowlers.  I assumed we had been dismissed for around 60 but when I saw Emil the next day he told me it was a game we should have won. A brilliant 4th wicket stand of 93 between Gul and Prasanth put Nomads right back in the hunt  (I can only assume the Imperials players had been shouting at Nomads' umpires - a perfectly natural response I suppose.)
The run out of Gul for 65 with the score on 116 could have been the turning point but further excellent batting by Prasanth (37) and Zia (31) kept up the momentum.  At one stage we were 163 for 6 with Abdul and Zia together and plenty of overs in hand.  Excellent bowling by Martin killed off our chances as he took our last 4 wickets for 8 runs and handed us a defeat by only 24 runs, securing the double for Surbiton over Nomads this season, but it was a half-decent result when you consider the position we had been in.
Man of the Match was Gul for his excellent 65.  Fielder of the Day was Hassan who took a catch, a run out, and marshalled the field well during his stint as captain. 

Surbiton Imperials - 195 from 39.4 overs

Nomads bowling;
H. Khan  8-3-25-1
A. West  5.4-0-18-1
Zia  8-2-36-2
E. Todorow  6-0-26-0
Abbas Khan  8-0-48-2
R. Khan  2-0-17-0
Abdul Khan  2-0-9-0

Clapham Nomads - 171 from 36.2 overs

M. Vyas  4
Gul  65
N. Lefebve  1
H. Khan  0
P. Pattiyil  37
Zia  31
R. Khan  13
Abdul. Khan  1
Abbas Khan  6
E. Todorow  1 not out
A. West  0

F.O.W. - 6, 22, 23, 116, 118, 150, 163, 167, 171, 171

Clapham Nomads lost by 24 runs