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Newdigate Sunday XI teams starts the season in a balance
Monjur Elahi4 May 2021 - 19:23
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Sunday XI
Thomas made his birthday memorable by scoring 29 runs and enjoyed his cake
- Monjur Elahi
There is still cold chill in the air and it is May already – time for some lazy Sunday Cricket. Two familiar sides – Newdigate CC and Salfords CC meet at Newdigate on 2nd May 2021. The teams met twice last year and Newdigate won both in narrow margins.
Monjur Elahi won the toss for Newdigate and decided to bat. There was grass in the pitch, the showers overnight did not do much to the hard pitch. Newdigate made a flying start, thanks to an entertaining 29 from the birthday boy, Thomas Clark. Jack Butler was relatively conservative at the beginning and ensured a very calculative 64 to his name. Jack Bowley took a similar approach to score his unbeaten 68 while Tanbir Mahmud’s quickfire 54 not out gave Newdigate a very respectable total of 245/3 in 40 overs. J. Street was successful with 2 wickets and the other bowlers did not do much.
Salfords CC made a brisk start in response, scoring 68 in 8 overs and the Newdigate quicks were feeding to their strengths. That prompted the captain to make quick bowling changes, in came the slower bowlers, some tight fielding came to the aid and all on a sudden, runs started to dry up. Salfords openers Rob Besley (46) and Damani Fancis (19) perished trying to accelerate the run-rate. Chris Eastwood (19) and James Besley (23) provided some solidity and hope to the visitors for a run chase but both lost their wickets playing big shots. The late middle and tail order batted well and took the total to 178 in 35 overs. Jon Bell bowled with exceptional accuracy for Newdigate and claimed 4 wickets; veteran Lee Brien chipped in with 3 wickets; young Redwan Islam claimed 2 and Ben Haynes 1 from the remaining wickets.
Newdigate CC won by 68 runs demonstrating a good team-work. The batsmen laid a perfect foundation upfront and the bowlers delivered as a unit. It is a wonderful start of the season for Sunday XI.
The Sunday 2nd XI travelled to Surbiton to play against a very strong London Gymkhana side. All started well as the home team slumped to 45-5 with Mike Duthie (2-35) and Scott Dunkerley (3-37) sharing the honours and David Callcut taking a spectacular catch in the outfield.
Enter Usman and Tahir. They took advantage of some wayward bowling and struck the ball to all corners of the ground as they put on an incredible partnership of 264. True, three dropped catches didn’t help but the batting was magnificent. In his 137 not out Tahir struck 11 sixes and 14 fours and Usman wasn’t far behind with 5 sixes and 12 fours in his 95. AS consolation Matt Clark took three wickets and Keith Runnles two as Gymkhana closed their innings on 341 all out after 39.4 overs.
Newdigate were faced with a daunting task and despite Angus Harper (17), Richard Callcut (21) and David Callcut (20) all getting off to a good start they were unable to push on. It was the magnificent Scott Dunkerley who gave Newdigate a respectable score with a beautifully crafted 100 not. This was a fine innings against some excellent bowling. He did give the fans some anxiety though. With nine wickets down he charged down the wicket, missed the ball, only for the keeper to miss the stumping. He then hit the ball to long on and refused the run in order to keep the bowling. No one had told him that he was on 99. Thankfully he then scored a comfortable single.
Monjur Elahi won the toss for Newdigate and decided to bat. There was grass in the pitch, the showers overnight did not do much to the hard pitch. Newdigate made a flying start, thanks to an entertaining 29 from the birthday boy, Thomas Clark. Jack Butler was relatively conservative at the beginning and ensured a very calculative 64 to his name. Jack Bowley took a similar approach to score his unbeaten 68 while Tanbir Mahmud’s quickfire 54 not out gave Newdigate a very respectable total of 245/3 in 40 overs. J. Street was successful with 2 wickets and the other bowlers did not do much.
Salfords CC made a brisk start in response, scoring 68 in 8 overs and the Newdigate quicks were feeding to their strengths. That prompted the captain to make quick bowling changes, in came the slower bowlers, some tight fielding came to the aid and all on a sudden, runs started to dry up. Salfords openers Rob Besley (46) and Damani Fancis (19) perished trying to accelerate the run-rate. Chris Eastwood (19) and James Besley (23) provided some solidity and hope to the visitors for a run chase but both lost their wickets playing big shots. The late middle and tail order batted well and took the total to 178 in 35 overs. Jon Bell bowled with exceptional accuracy for Newdigate and claimed 4 wickets; veteran Lee Brien chipped in with 3 wickets; young Redwan Islam claimed 2 and Ben Haynes 1 from the remaining wickets.
Newdigate CC won by 68 runs demonstrating a good team-work. The batsmen laid a perfect foundation upfront and the bowlers delivered as a unit. It is a wonderful start of the season for Sunday XI.
The Sunday 2nd XI travelled to Surbiton to play against a very strong London Gymkhana side. All started well as the home team slumped to 45-5 with Mike Duthie (2-35) and Scott Dunkerley (3-37) sharing the honours and David Callcut taking a spectacular catch in the outfield.
Enter Usman and Tahir. They took advantage of some wayward bowling and struck the ball to all corners of the ground as they put on an incredible partnership of 264. True, three dropped catches didn’t help but the batting was magnificent. In his 137 not out Tahir struck 11 sixes and 14 fours and Usman wasn’t far behind with 5 sixes and 12 fours in his 95. AS consolation Matt Clark took three wickets and Keith Runnles two as Gymkhana closed their innings on 341 all out after 39.4 overs.
Newdigate were faced with a daunting task and despite Angus Harper (17), Richard Callcut (21) and David Callcut (20) all getting off to a good start they were unable to push on. It was the magnificent Scott Dunkerley who gave Newdigate a respectable score with a beautifully crafted 100 not. This was a fine innings against some excellent bowling. He did give the fans some anxiety though. With nine wickets down he charged down the wicket, missed the ball, only for the keeper to miss the stumping. He then hit the ball to long on and refused the run in order to keep the bowling. No one had told him that he was on 99. Thankfully he then scored a comfortable single.
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