AS-IF HE COULD     ...KHAN HE CAN

WADIWALLA CAN YOU?  ..........................Get up in time

Next week!!!!    
 
 
2ND X1 MARCH REPORT V ROHEHAMPTON - AWAY

 
The skipper said he wanted everyone at the Ground at 12.30 changed.  At 11.30 his phone kept ringing as players wondered how they were going to get there and where the Ground was .........despite three emails and two texts during the week with detailed instructions!  Come on you guys.................!!!!
 
At 12.30 we had four!  Adrian, Shreyaz, Liam and Chandra.   Given that three were "colts" and didn't drive says something.  Roehampton were busy rolling the wicket when I arrived ...........something wrong here........  we were about to find out. 

Amir had phoned earlier as he had been involved in an accident.  Although his car was written off,......  a great effort, as he borrowed a car and got himself, Sami and Asif to the ground around 2.00.  
 
1.15 and calls from Louis and Zaf .......where is the Ground?  Clearly reading emails and texts are not high on their radar.
 
At 1.20 we still had four.  Having lost the toss and asked to bat (with no umpires), there was the possibility that we had two batsman and two umpires padded up! 

1.25 Zaf, Louis, Imran and our scorer arrived. Hasty changing behind trees. A sense of village cricket had descended on proceedings.   

The wicket was helpful to bowlers as the ball lifted alarmingly from a length.  Imran Rashid was out to an excellent diving catch at point. 11 for 1.  Adrian Taylor fended a nasty ball off his nose and was caught off his glove. 14 for 2.

 Amir, Asif and Sami arrived as Louis Karunaratne (25) and Sami Khan (23) steadied the ship before Louis was out at 83 quickly followed by Sami.     Guildford City 87 for 4.

Roehampton's Farrell then picked up Liam Harrison and Amir Mohammed in consecutive balls, and then had Chandra brilliantly caught at short leg. Guildford City 88 for 8. 

 Fortunately our eleventh player had arrived - Ali Wadiwalla (41) who had been asleep at home at 2.00 joined Asif Husain (40) and shared a match winning 9th wicket partnership with Ali Wadiwalla.

 Asif with 3 x sixes and 4 x fours, and Ali Wadiwalla 4 x sixes and 3 fours set about destroying Roehampton's bowling attack.

That’s six!

And Another!
At 170 Asif Husain was finally out. I had felt that a total of 160 was possibly  enough on this wicket with our attack, and everything now was a bonus.

 An excellent 10th wicket partnership between Zaf Iqbal (10) and Ali Wadiwalla got us to what I felt was a match winning total of 208 (and maximum batting points). These two partnerships were crucial in setting up our win. Such an effort demanded a response and Guilford City responded magnificently.

Chandra set attacking fields, and the bowlers and fielders responded brilliantly. Asif Husain and Sami Khan bowled a really good opening spell.

 Danger man Farrell took up the challenge and smashed two straight fours in Asif's first over. Chandra dropped himself three quarters of the way back for Asif's next over and the danger batsman was caught! Sami Khan then bowled their number three for a duck, and had their opener brilliant caught by Liam Harrison at short leg.

 Not finished, Sami then bowled their number 4, leaving Roehampton 35 for 4.

Ali Wadiwalla then picked up a wicket.     Catch!  Can you?...........

 With Chandra taking his second catch.    Sami bowled their captain for 16 for his fourth wicket. With the spinners now on we were causing lots of problems.

 Louis picked up a couple - one to a good catch in the deep by Shreyas Pandit.  Roehampton 78 for 8. 

 The ninth wicket like in our own innings proved a difficult one to capture. Spencer 33 not out and Matthews took the score to 132 before Sami Khan recalled to the attack bowled Matthews. Chandra finished the innings off, leading the side to an excellent and deserved win as Roehampton were bowled out for 137.

Man of the Match

Asif, and Ali produced great match winning knocks and also took 1 for 31 and 1 for 6 respectively  

Sami Khan - 5 for 51 including that important 9th wicket and a useful 23 just shades my vote for Man of the Match.

The three juniors - Liam, Adrian and Shreyas were excellent in the field, whilst Imran kept wicket really well. A very good all round team performance.

Other wickets:-

Louis              2 for 14
Chandra         1 for 6        

 


Chandra