Theale and Tilehurst Friendly XI vs Marlow Park 7th August 2005

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Report by Fingers

I think Osman was pleased to lose the toss, I think if he had won he would have asked to borrow the coin to toss to decide whether we were going to bat or bowl. As it was Marlow Park elected to bat.

One thing worth noting was the size of the boundaries that were in place, we were right over on the pavilion side of the square which meant a relatively short boundary on one side and most of South Buckinghamshire being included on the other. Being the experienced old campaigner that I am I managed to ensure that I spent the whole afternoon on the short boundary side.

Slater and Weston got the Marlow Park innings off to a good start and it was the introduction of spin in to the attack that put a brake on the innings and prompted wickets to fall with me picking up three and Chilly another. Chilly’s wicket was in part due to a very good catch taken by Arsalan at mid on. It may be that the batsman had not realised that he was there as Arsalan has taken to fielding at mid on in the style of the Shopkeeper from Mr Benn, he tucks himself in behind the non-striker out of sight and then manages to pop up at just the right time when he is needed to field the ball. I have noticed that Arsalan never wears a hat in the field and I now wonder if this is because he would be self-conscious wearing a fez, apparently there is absolutely no truth in the rumour that he lives at 52 Festive Road.

The fall of the fourth wicket may not have been a cause for too much celebration. You know when you see someone on the boundary and you think he looks a good cricketer? Well there was their number six on the boundary looking a very good cricketer, it later transpired that he has played for Pakisatn A and there was even a rumour that he had played a one day international although I can’t find him on Cricinfo. Anyway, in comes Moahmmed Jawad and very soon he hits yours truly for a massive six straight over long off, one of the biggest any of us had seen in a long time. I was soon to have my revenge though, Arsalan decided it would be good to test him out on the short ball wide of off stump and inevtably he went back and played a ferocious cut short. He didn’t quite get over it though and it went like a shell in to my hands above my head at point, a great catch even if I do say so myself (and fortunately the others said this as well). He looked a little surprised to be having to walk off at that point

The Marlow Park innings progressed and there was an excellent seventh wicket partnership between Howell and Hawkins. In a slighly longer game we had got through 48 overs when quarter to five ticked over on the clock on the pavilion. Splendid we thought, time for tea. However, tea proved to be a moveable feast and we were obliged to stay out for one more over before the declaration came.

Chilly and El Presidente opened the T&T reply and got the innings off to a very good start with a partnership of 88 before Chilly was the first to be dismissed. Shortly after El Presidente went past fifty before runing out of puff and chipping a catch up to cover. With twenty overs to go we needed 140 and our main hope was that Meady would be able to carry on his non-1st XI form, fortunately he did and we were able to keep up with the rate as he had good partnerships with Rags and Oneal. His 64 came off 48 balls and included five 4s and three 6s.

When Meady went near the end though it looked like our chances were gone of making it to our target with 18 needed off seven balls. However, Arsalan hit the final ball of the penultimate over for six and there was a chance with twelve needed off the last over. This eventually became 2 off the last ball but unfortunately no contact was made and whilst a bye was scampered it still meant that the game ended as a draw albeit with the scores level.

This was an excellent game played at probably one of the best grounds we play at each year. It was also a tremednous performance to get up to 235 batting second and give the opposition a real fright.

P.S.

Os is obviously better at researching these things than I am; he is on Cricinfo and Mohammed Jawed’s details are as follows:

Full name Mohammad Javed
Born May 4, 1969, Karachi, Sind
Current age 36 years 97 days
Major teams Karachi, National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan National Shipping Corporation
Also known as Mohammad Jawed
Batting style Right-hand bat (5,154 first class runs at 29.28 including 4 centuries and 27 fifties)
Bowling style Right-arm medium (291 first class wickets at 25.89)

Not a bad wicket for Arsalan to have picked up!