Energy Exiles v Clapham Nomads - 5/5/19

Clapham Nomads had arranged a last-minute fixture against Spencer cc but arrived at Spencer's fine ground off Burntwood Lane to find we were playing none other than old friends the Energy Exiles. It seems that Spencer were due to play the Exiles but had not been able to raise a team so they lined us up instead, for which we were more than grateful. This was rather like going to see a band play in a pub and finding it is the Rolling Stones. Or going to your Auntie's and finding it is Joan Collins. Or going for breakfast in a greasy spoon caff and finding that Gordon Ramsay is frying the sausages. Actually, a more apt analogy would be picking a fight against a fat bloke and finding that it is Tyson Fury. We were battered as usual
Well it wasn't quite as bad as John and Emil made out.  Exiles were well-led by their new skipper Bernard Leuvennink and had several familiar faces; Keith Roberts, Andy Wingfield, Jibran Ahmed, Chris Plume and the great Naren Patel.  Exiles piled on the runs (this is what they do) but the highlight was 65 off 50-odd balls (including 5 sixes) by former Nomads player Bilal Musakhel who helped Nomads win the Epsom 20-20 Championship a few years back. Exiles finished on 202 for 5 which is roughly the sort of total we were conceding in many games last season.
Nomads were soon put under pressure and fell behind the rate thanks to a great spell of 1 for 7 from 5 overs by the returning legend N.Patel who has not bowled against us for several years. This must have been bowling of the utmost craftiness. I wish I had seen it. As last week, Nomads did not really take off with the bat, but once again we showed resilience. What really took the game away from us was a 4 wicket haul from Andy Wingfield which included 2 leg-side wicketkeeping catches in one over - one of them the vital wicket of Hasan - and a jaffa to prise out Emil Todorow. KK and John Crossland batted it out at the death to ensure we were not bowled out but the final total of 135 for 8 must be one of our lowest hauls for some time in a full 35-over innings.
Top scorer was Abbas with 35 - keeping up his good form.
There was a fine performance from the youthful debutant Salman. 24 runs and some clever leg spin.
Now I would never ever make cheap excuses for a defeat against the Exiles but we did have only 10 men and were missing Sami and last season's player of the year Zia.
Many thanks to Ian from Spencer cc for setting up the fixture (and playing) and saving the day for Nomads and Exiles.

Energy Exiles - 202 for 5 from 35 overs

Nomads' bowling;
Hasan  6-0-34-0
KK  7-1-21-1
Salman  7-1-40-0
Abbas  7-0-54-2
Riaz  6-1-26-1
Emil  2-0-23-0

Clapham Nomads - 135 for 8 from 35 overs.

Mahesh  13
Darwin  5
Salman  24
Hasan  9
Rafi  12
Riaz  6
KK  25 not out
Abbas  35
Emil (capt)  0
John (wkt)  0 not out
F.O.W - 8, 23, 53, 54, 66, 77, 134, 134




Nomads lost by 67 runs.

Man of the Match was KK - The most economical bowler, the second-highest scorer and he was still there at the end.
Fielder of the Day - I wasn't there but based on the stats I will give it to Darwin for engineering a run out.

No games now until 9th June when we are playing.................Energy Exiles.

Best wishes for Ramadan to all.