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Played at Springfield Park
Report by Hassan Khan (captain)

This fixture was highly competitive against a good NELCL side.

Having won the toss, London Fields elected to bat on a brilliant sunny day. There was, however, some purchase for spinners and enough grass on the wicket to enable swing for the seamers.

The L.F. openers batted sensibly and, having survived three or four close LBW appeals they constructed a 64-run opening stand. With myself and Azaz wicketless, a brilliant seven-over spell from Old Fallopians superstar Farhad turned the match. At mid-off I could hear the snap in his wrist as he completely bamboozled the opposition, mixing googlies, flippers and medium paced arm balls.

Two for 27 could easily have been a five-wicket haul. Our second spinner, Steve 'Singh' Hamilton, bore a striking resemblance to Monty Panesar; he even had the bowling and fielding to match! After being carved for a huge six, he had the L.F. batsman brilliantly caught by Barath at short mid-wicket. Subsequently, he attempted a caught and bowled chance from L.F. opener Dunn and had to leave the field with a swollen palm.

At 161 from 30 overs, I was reasonably happy with our bowlers; however, giant Aussie Troy hammered 26 from 10 balls, including two towering sixes and a competitive 206 from 35 overs was required.

Our batting got off to the worst possible start: Farhad was given LBW and wicketkeeper Ammer was bowled first ball. 10-2 became 39-3 when I joined Azaz. We put on a solid 50 partnership, until Azaz hit a full toss straight down deep midwicket's throat.

Hereafter, there were useful contributions from Ali, Naveen and a classy 28 from Ravi but what we lacked was a blistering cameo. Alas, the one man capable of this, Zubair, (as subsitute) was not allowed to bat, even though L.F. were happy for him to field in place of the injured Steve. I watched in frustration as Steve's one-handed boundary from the last ball took us to 182-7, some 23 runs short, with myself 33 not out.

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