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Shame my success at winning the toss is not reflected by our ability to
win matches ! Won toss and inserted Staines & Laleham and for a
change the pitch not hiding any demons for the team batting first.
Opening bowlers Matt Loveridge 11-0-38-1 (Catch by Mo Kassan) and Mike
Dart 5-1-16-0 toiling well for little reward and Tom Broad 5-1-21-1 (Bowled)
getting us into a good position with the first two wickets falling at 46 and
53.Nad Rashid 12.5-3-55-0,playing his first game since returning from injury
was next into the fray and bowled well, but was unlucky to come
up against a batsman who liked the ball on his leg stump and put the ball to
the boundary behind square on a regular basis. Mo Kassan 4-0-27-0 put in two
good early overs but was punished in his second two and James Warne 7-0-38-2
(LBW and Catch by Mo Kassan) with the wickets falling on 147 and 150 our
only other bowlers used. Our opponents declared their innings closed on 209
for 4 after 44.5 overs. Extras 9 Byes,3 Leg Byes,10 Wides and 5 No Balls.
In reply we got off to a great start with openers Nad Rashid 56 and Steve
Smith 25 putting on 85,but sadly both fell on that total, as did Pali
Palekar 0.Things going from bad to worse as Bhavish Jathwa 8 and Mike Dart 0 both
fell on 93,closely followed by Tom Broad 0 on 94.Alfie Mekwan 28 (in at
number 5) then put on a stand of 51 with Mo Kassan 40 which got us
back into the game. Alfie was out with our total 145 and 9 runs later James
Warne 0 followed him back to the sidelines. Mo and the skip 15 Not Out then
added 26 to our score with an unlikely win still a possibility until Mo was
out with our total on 180.Matt Loveridge 0 stayed briefly as our total moved
on to 185 and we were all out in 43.3 overs. Extras 2 Byes,2 Leg Byes,8
Wides and 1 No Ball.
Once again our nemesis side have beaten us twice in a season, but to our
credit both games this year were a lot closer affairs than our previous
meetings, one year we are going to beat them !
