A great start to the season

With a number of newbies and an unknown quantity in the opposition, I decided that batting first was the best idea. After winning the toss and doing so we found ourselves in trouble with the Bushey Met Police opening bowlers bowling a consistent line and length to keep the scoring rate down and picking up wickets. Matin, Lawrence and last week's top scorer Gaurav were already back in the hutch with the scoreboard only on 30. However Ali Sayed (82) continued his majestic form from last season to dominate the bowling and make his first fifty of the season.

Wickets fell around him regularly until he found a ready and willing partner in Shahme (38) at number seven. The two of them had contributed over 80% of the runs by the time Shahme departed, more of a reflection on the poor application from the rest of us than anything else. With five overs to go we were 158-7 and reaching 170 was looking very likely, however Ajay, Ammar and Faiz all struggled to get the ball away resulting in three out of the four subsequent overs being maidens. It was left to Ammar and Shaun to get the 5 runs needed off the final over, which they achieved leaving us 173-9 off our 47 overs.

In previous seasons opening with spin had reeped rewards, however having tried the same ploy, Bushey Met Police seemed to enjoy a lack of pace on the ball and got to 38-0 off 7 overs. There was one moment of controversy when the opposition captain was given not out after nicking one down the legside. No blame could be attributed to the umpire, but when the skipper said he hadn't hit it, despite it coming off the face of the bat, a sour taste remained in the mouth.

The new ball was then taken, however the runs continued to haemmorage with Met Police racing to 73-0 off 12 overs. However a more inspired bowling change led to the breakthrough, Ali Sayed inducing an outside edge which this time the skipper did admit to (79-1). With Ajay continuing to shake off the early season rust to find a nagging line and length the pressure began to tell.

A fantastic and sharp caught and bowled gave Ajay his first wicket and with the other opener looking to hit out or get out (as he had to leave to go to work by 6) he obliged us with the latter, charging down the wicket to miss straight one to give Ajay his second wicket. The next ball the number 5, somewhat bizarrely, chose to not play a shot to a ball pitching on middle and leg hitting him under the knee roll in front of middle.

With the Village establishing a foothold in the game Faizan returned, having opened the bowling initially, to replace Ali (1-15). A superb spell of off spin bowling saw him pick up the remaining six wickets, with a good compination of flight, doosras and quicker balls.

All in all a good win, however with Ali's availability being flakey throughout the season, we will need to be less dependent on him to score runs and chip in more ourselves.

Lawrence