Played at Holtwhites Sports and Social Club, Enfield
Report by Steve Hamilton
This fixture certainly delivered plenty thrills and spills at the
luxurious home of HT Libraries in Enfield.
I lost the toss
and opposition captain David Garnsworthy decided to bat. We had the
perfect start when Azaz Kahlil clean bowled Jackson with the fourth
ball of the day for a duck.
HT Libraries were fortunate to
get back into the game after that early scare and they reached 56
for 1 off 8 overs after a series of dropped catches and outside
edges that raced to the boundary.
Now we stepped up our game
and three wickets fell quickly. First we were treated to some seam
up pace bowling from Junaid who removed the dangerous opener Kansara
for 41. The batter didn't quite connect cleanly and hit a full toss
to long off where Asad Mushtaq nonchalantly took a breath-taking
one-handed catch!
Then there was another piece of brilliance
in the field from Asad. He threw the ball at lighting speed from
third man to keeper Jakaria Ahmed who grabbed the ball awkwardly in
front of himself. Jakaria didn't have time to turn round and hit the
stumps directly, so he threw the ball one-handed blindly with his
back to the stumps. He connected and Sailing was run out for 12.
Talal Ali then took the wicket of Preyesh for 2 when he skied
the ball straight to cover where Fahim Pathan took a simple catch.
Now we were back in the game and had them wobbling at 78 for 4 off
11 overs.
Umair Shahzad was back from Pakistan and as usual
he didn't disappoint. He showed he was still comfortable playing on
grass wickets again after playing tape ball on clay tracks back
home. He took two wickets both clean bowled for hardly any runs.
Asad Mushtaq also bowled superbly and took two wickets for next to
nothing. Jakaria showed control and accuracy and was rewarded with
wicket of the skipper Garnsworthy.
A remarkable piece of
fielding from Umair closed the HT innings. Fielding at backward
point, Umair hit the stumps with a direct throw to run out last man
Popat.
We were chasing 182 for the second consecutive game.
With only a single match lost in our last 27 games we were confident
of victory!
Well, things certainly didn't follow the usual
script. We lost wickets at pace and were in deep doodoo after a
series of unbelievable catches left us five wickets down on 74 after
14 overs.
Asad had got off to the perfect start with three
fours until he was caught by Kansara at deep square leg, who took an
outstanding catch of a ball swirling above his head off the bowling
of Garnsworthy.
Jakaria was on fire for a rapid 30, with five
fours, a six and some delightful cover drives. He fell victim to
another exceptional catch by young colt Tinache who dived low to the
ground to reach the ball off the bowling of Mihir.
Now came
the big turning point in the match. Junaid was on 22 and looked in
full control after hitting four fours. He smashed the ball with pure
venom back to the bowler Garnsworthy at head height. The bowler
turned his head away in self-preservation but still managed to stick
his hands up above his shoulder to take a remarkable catch -
definitely the best of the day.
We finally looked to have
settled down after we reached 131 for 5 off 24 overs. Our fifth
wicket pairing of Umair and Talal had shared 57 runs. But their
partnership was suddenly broken by HT’s star off-spinner Kansara who
tempted Umair into big shot that was mistimed and skied to
mid-wicket. Sailing took a great catch and Umair was gone for 22.
Now the collapse really set in as we lost four wickets for just
9 runs. We could not master the spin duo of leggie Popat and off
spinner Kansara who terrorised our batsman. Anas Muhammad and Aftab
Akram both got ducks. Fahim Pathan only managed to score 2 and then
Talal was clean bowled for 29.
Myself and Subhan Aftab kept
the dream alive briefly with a valiant effort and a 20-run
partnership for the final wicket ... until Subhan hit the ball
straight to cover and that was that game over!
My lasting
memory of this defeat will be the exceptional catches taken by HT
Libraries who definitely deserved the victory.
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