Fours return to winning ways

Losing the toss again Timperley were surprisingly asked to bat first on what looked like another back pitch road. Skipper Usman decided to shake things up a bit in the batting order considering the poor efforts over the last few months starting with himself & Carr with a fluid approach to the rest of the order dependant on circumstances.

Unfortunately this experiment did not succeed and Carr was soon out Lbw to Daniels for 1. Fisher joined Usman and the pair of them took the score to 159, putting away the bad ball when offered. Usman looked well set for a hundred when he smashed Gurulakshmi through mid off at missile speed. The scorer had just picked up his pencil to mark the 4 when Saxena, diving to his right, held a stunning one handed catch to dismiss him for 71. A superb effort. Fisher was out soon thereafter to a sharp caught and bowled to Gurulakshmi for 61 and for a few overs the momentum in the innings was lost.

Khan had batted nicely for 23 before uncharacteristically trying to slog Carly onto the road. This was possibly a candidate for ugliest shot of the season but was usurped next ball when Gajanan was bamboozled by Carly to be bowled first up for 0. Hashmi was also soon out Lbw and this left Phadake and Shah at the crease. I suspect Shah had been less than impressed with his demotion down the order and soon got to work, smashing a rapid fire 30 ball 90 not out including 12 sixes and two fours. All of the sixes were through mid on & mid-wicket and showed fantastic hand eye coordination. He had a little luck being dropped at deep mid wicket & with another strike carried over the boundary for six. Exciting watching! Phadake (10) & then Tharcasmani (12) chipped in to close the innings on 312 for 8 off 40 overs.

In response Styal struggled against Hashmi & Phadake with the new ball. Hashmi had Saeed bowled for 0 and then had Saxon well held at slip by Usman for 10. Phadake then bowled Lachsmi (6) with an off stump bail trimmer and it was 33 for 3 off 12 and Styal were well behind the clock. Bangee & Tharcasmani bowled well in the middle order claiming 2 for 31 & 1 for 14 respectively. It was then Usman picked up the ball. Scenting some cheap wickets in the Styal tail he cleaned up to take 4 for 15. Carley batted defiantly for 43 before being done (like so many before him) by the Usman inswinger.

A decent shift by the fourth team after a run of poor performances.