A frustrating but rewarding draw

After losing the toss on a damp wicket Lawrence was asked to bat. Knowing a good score on a damp village wicket is anybody's guess, but with the forecast scheduled to be sunny in the latter part of the afternoon, Lawrence had no intention of declaring early.

A solid if not unspectacular start by Matin and son meant we were 17-0 after 8 overs before Suleman fell to a good catch in the gully. Matin departed soon after to leave us 38-2. Naz played his usual breezy innings scoring at quicker than a run a ball before holing out to deep midwicket and was followed into the pavilion by Joe 4 overs later.

Ali, looking for his first score of the season, played a patient innings coupled with controlled aggression and managed to score 55 in a very useful partnership of 89 with his brother Yas (32). Shahme (20) provided some late fireworks to take us to 202-7 off our 47 overs.

Given the lack of bowling options, Lawrence did a "Downsey" and opened with the old ball, which paid dividends. Naz taking a sharp caught and bowled and Shahme the benefactor of continued pressure when the Preston opener went for a shot over the top, only to inside edge onto his stumps.

Having got the breakthrough, the new ball was taken and Ali continued his good match picking up 2 wickets both caught at slip by Chalky. The Preston skipper rode his luck to make 29 before hitting the ball to Suleman who was awake for once! At no point did it look like Preston were interested in chasing the game, even turning down full tosses from Chalky but it came as a surprise they did not even bother trying to get any batting points. Several bowlers were used (8 in total) with little reward. With three overs to go Preston were 83-5 and we were almost resigned to taking 15 points, however Ali drew a thin edge in his first over of his second spell, before the umpire upheld the skipper's LBW appeal to a vicious inswinging yorker. With 6 balls to go Preston were 83-7.

Ball 1: The batsman hit's the ball in the air to cover where Naz was positioned, unfortunately the requirement to walk in 3 steps proved too tricky and the opportunity was dropped.

Ball 2: The number 9 manages to get bat on ball unconvincingly

Ball 3: A play and a miss

Ball 4: Another unconvincing shot but he manages to survive

Ball 5: Batsman leaves a straight ball to hit his leg in front of middle

Ball 6: New batsman chips the ball in the air straight to Naz (he only had to take one step this time)

So a frustrating game with an exciting ending resulted in us picking up the maximum points we could without winning. But Preston's attitude to not even get batting points was somewhat bewildering