Sunday XI
Matches
Sun 23 Jun 2019
Brook Cricket Club
Sunday XI
231/5
203/7
Charing Cross Medical College CC
Sunday XI v Charing Cross Medical College

Sunday XI v Charing Cross Medical College

John Pheasant24 Jun 2019 - 10:32
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https://www.brookcricketclub.c

Excellent all-round team performance!

With Leatherhead CC cancelling on Thursday evening, the rush was on to find a Conference fixture. In the end, after contacting eight clubs, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical College became the new opposition. John Williams, following developments closely during the week, emailed to say that he had very good memories of playing against the College years ago.

A 40-overs match was agreed and, on winning the toss, we elected to bat. John Hamilton (41) and debutant, Farhan Shahzad (59), started steadily to build a solid platform both hitting some delightful drives. When Farhan was stumped, Will Owen (15) joined John and pushed the score along before John was caught at cover as the ball held up off the wicket to usher in Qadir. At first, Will and Qadir ran quickly between the wickets before Qadir (40) opened his shoulders and started to up the tempo. When Will was caught, Adnan (53) came to the wicket and started as he meant to continue with a boundary before hitting four huge sixes, as 74 runs were scored off the last five overs! In the changing room before the start of the innings, the skipper had suggested that 220 would be a good score but that he would be happy with anything north of 200. The final score of 231 left him very happy at tea!

Tea, thank you Chloe, was again delicious and enjoyed by both teams.

With a very competitive total on the board, there was a good opportunity to get everyone on to bowl (other than Alex who kept wicket, Pat Clarke who subbed for John Hamilton who tweaked his hamstring again while batting - wishing John a very speedy recovery, hopefully in time for this weekend - and the skipper). But to achieve this, it was necessary to gain control early on and stop the opposition batsmen from getting off to a flying start which they threatened to do. Qadir (8 1 24 2) and Andrew Herring (8 0 37 0), who both bowled their allotted eight overs straight through, provided this control and, after 16 overs, the Medical College (with a good number of guest players) had been restricted to 62 for 2 with Qadir taking both wickets to excellent catches by Adnan and Farhan in the outfield.

In the middle overs, the three juniors all bowled well: Will Owen (5 0 27 0), Oscar Rhodes (4 0 27 1) and Zach Clarke (4 0 23 0) keeping the batting side behind the required rate. But, having seen the late onslaught from Adnan and Qadir when we batted, the skipper was very aware that 100 off the last 10 overs was achievable and so it appeared with the College keeping up with the rate to need 52 off the last five overs and 45 off the last four. Adnan ( 4 0 22 3) and Muhammad (5 0 36 1), back playing at Brook after a gap, were the 'death' bowlers and saw the team through to a well deserved victory. Adnan started with a wicket first ball, bowled, to remove their top scoring batsman and then picked up another in the same over to bring two new batsmen to the crease. Muhammed then struck the vital blow with a wicket off the first ball of his fourth over (over 37) to another good catch in the deep by Adnan, who was the man of the match (53 runs, 3 wickets and 2 catches). Another tight over from Adnan in the 38th, conceding only one run, meant that the College needed 43 from the last 2 overs. With Khalid finishing strongly and restricting the batsmen to only 8 runs, the skipper was able to bring back Zach Clarke to finish off the innings which he did extremely well. A top edge sailed up and towards dad, Pat, whose radar had been working wonderfully well all innings until this moment! With the team's heart in its mouth, Pat positioned himself to take what would have been the catch to crown a wonderful team performance. The 'It's ok, dad!' which followed showed the strength of family bonds and great maturity from Zach! As it was, Zach still restricted the batting side to only 6 off the last over to give us victory by 28 runs.

The fielding by Brook was at times top class and the best seen on a Sunday this season (which is saying a lot given that the fielding has been very good). Andrew Herring set the standard with Adnan and Farhan taking fine catches and the youngsters racing after the ball and throwing in with great accuracy. Zach's speed to the ball saved several 2s.

A very competitive match, played in excellent spirit with everyone contributing. Well done team!

Thanks to Chloe for the wonderful tea, to Pip for scoring and to Club Captain, Jon King, Saturday 1st XI Captain, Paul Challinor, and Saturday 1st XI Vice-captain, Nick Jackman for coming down to support the Sunday XI and, as always, Roy Hardy for his loyal support. And a big thank you to those who did a great job tidying up in the kitchen, etc, after the match - much appreciated!

Match details

Match date

Sun 23 Jun 2019

Kickoff

14:00

Meet time

13:30
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Ground Sponsor - Drive
General Sponsor - Dog & Pheasant