Match Report

Steeple Aston are one of the strongest teams we play, the selectors picked a strong batting line-up, giving captain Tim Riley plenty of choice behind the timbers. Steeple Aston skipper decided to bat first without any hesitation when he won the toss. The first two openers had a very good start and gave a tough time to both Asif and Sam. After a hard work finally Asif clean bowled the opener and try to bring back MSCC back in to game. Sam on the other end was very economical and keep the pressure, one good chance being spilt at second slip,  but the opposition played very well and gradually build up a good score on the good batting pitch. To bring MSCC back on track team captain Tim Riley came into action and took some very quick wickets and slow down the flow of runs. Despite our hard work and some miss catches, Steeple Aston put a good number 200 for us to chase. In this innings the great moment was when George Williams was bowling, and Jason William was chasing the ball in the field while Mrs William was encouraging them to push it hard and yes, it pays off by taking five wickets between them and their fielding was on the high standard as compared to all of us.

The Williams family served up a most fantastic tea with the players enjoying sandwiches and home-made cakes (yummy). Do you think George was given similar support by Katy when he was making the sausage rolls?

To chase the 200 target, Harry Way and Howard Lancaster opened the batting, Harry scored boundaries off the first two balls but sadly Howard Lancaster lost his wicket, at the end of the first over bowled by Higgins.  Shortly after Howard’s downfall,  Tim House and Jay Mumtaz lost their wickets while Harry Way was showing some resistance on the other end and made 18 runs before mistiming a sweep shot to be caught at square leg.  Now all the responsibility came on the shoulders of the remaining batsmen. It was very clear that they are going to win very easily but Tim Riley and Sam Norley showed some dogged resistance for the next 10 overs. With Sam on 14 Steeple Aston broke through for a seventh wicket. Over an hour and a quarter remained. The plan was to save the match and Seril Shah was using all his experience to do the great job, it took only 35 deliveries for him to get off the mark. As the last half hour approached Tim Riley fell to a slip catch taken as far back as it is possible to field and still be called a slip. The fielder was slightly less surprised at catching the ball than his team mates. Seril and Jason Williams had half of the final 20 overs to survive. Then five overs. Could the game be saved? Harry Higgins bowled Seril a rare full toss, for once Seril played an aggressive shot as the fielders at last gathered around the bat. The ball flew to the chest of the gulley fielder who wrapped his arms around the rebound. Last man Asif walked out to join Jason for the final wicket partnership. Asif try to play the inning of his life to do something different than he normally do (getting out on 2nd bowl) and give some support to Jason William but unfortunately that came into end when Jason was caught by short square leg fielder. MSCC only reach to total 80 runs on the board. Asif for the first time remain not out in the history of MSCC. The top scorer from MSCC was Tim Riley 22. Thanks to Richard Lumb for umpiring and to Chris Greer for keeping score.

Asif Kamal