4th XI beat Exiles

On finally congregating at Mere, the team found that Mo had decided to take first dibs on a bit of a green top set in a big outfield. Intelligence reports suggested new players turning out the Exiles so let’s rack up a big score and bowl them out was the plan.

Mo & Zain opened and Zain batted in his own normal belligerent style taking on all comers and he hit a fluent 31 whilst taking 75% of the strike. The titbits that Mo was offered were accurate and resulted in a painful watch for the spectators as he scored 7 in a dozen or so overs. It could have been slightly more but both bats declined to run on a ‘certain’ 4 and it turned into a single on being well chased down. Zain fell first to make it 39 for 1 and was followed not long thereafter by Mo. If his innings had been a lame horse it would have been shot.

This placed Kabs and Karl at the crease and both struggled against the turn and bounce obtained by the spinner Thebe. This led to the demise of both in the end, Kabs to a sharp caught and bowled and Karl also caught. In between Gary had a brief counter attacking innings before playing a loose shot to play on to Qureshi for 10. It was now 70 for 5 and things were looking a bit suspect. Mo Tayyab did not trouble the scorers too much as did Krishna who missed a straight one to be Lbw first ball.

This placed Waseem and Joe at the crease and they supplied a critical 37 run partnership led by Waseem with a well struck 26. It looked as if he might score a few more but he lamely spooned it into the covers to be dismissed. Parth joined Joe and held an end up in adding another 10 before Joe was out for 16, the innings closing on 133. This was assisted by the invisible batsman Mr Extras with 32 who top scored. Time would tell if this was a decent effort.

The mid game pow wow thought we were in with a shout if we put the ball in the right places and held our catches and that is how it turned out. The team held some sharp catches, the pick being by Zain at first slip to take Patel (25) off Mo with others by Gary, Parth & Tayyab not far behind. All bowlers doing their bit. A key moment was the catch by Mo off Thebe who looked a quality player. It was somewhat fortuitous that Mo was where he was as the lofted catch to mid-off would not have been held above their head by anyone else.

As the innings progressed and wickets fell and overs were bowled, an enquiry to the scorer on how many overs had been bowled by Mo sparked a debate between the 80 odd year old umpire and Mo. Agreement could not be reached on something and a Krakatoan spleen venting was obtained from Mo that was surely heard in the Country Club next door. Eventually it settled down but I am fairly sure any chance of Lbw had now gone off the menu.

Krishna was brought on as the death bowler and he delivered two quick wickets to close out the game for a 50 run victory.

For those that were there and events in the past here is an interesting thought to ponder…Who threw their dummy furthest? Was it Frank a couple of seasons ago or Mo on Saturday? Thoughts into the whatsap group please.

To Offerton we do travel next week.