ALCORCON BEAT LEAGUE ONE NEWCOMERS LEVANTE

Levante Cricket Club Levante CC v Alcorcon CC on Sun 27 Apr 2014 at 13:00pm Levante Cricket Club Lost By 42 runs

Levante CC learned a harsh lesson as they made a losing start to their first division campaign. Alcorcon were the visitors to Valencia, armed with the mighty Tariq Ali who would go on to be the match winner for the Madrid based club.

Levante won the toss and elected to put Alcorcon in to bat. Captain Akmal and Tariq opened the batting and they both found the boundary with ease as the decision to put them in was looking like a poor decision. Qasim (0-47) and Tivey both struggled at the start of the game as Alcorcon powered to a rate of ten an over through the power play overs and despite some better bowling from Matthews and Burchell, Alcorcon had reached 200/2 at drinks. Matthews had made the breakthrough rather fortunately as a full toss hit Akmal (48) spun off the wicket and into the stumps

Things changed rapidly after drinks though as Tariq (119) who had already been dropped 5 times, was finally caught by Tivey off the bowling of Burchell. Mudessar (42no) looked to carry on where Tariq had left off as he smashed the ball out of the ground numerous times but at the other end he was running out of partners.

Orville, making his debut for Levante put the squeeze on the batsmen at the other end and he and Burchell ripped through the middle order. With tighter bowling and catches being held, Alcorcon had fallen from 200/2 after 20 overs to 246ao inside 30 overs. Orville (4/24) and Burchell (4-71) did the damage whilst Tivey (1-61) came on to finish the job.

It was a fighting comeback from Levante who gave themselves a chance to win the game but ultimately they will rue dropping no less than 8 or 9 chances. Against the likes of Tariq and Mudessar they simply have to take those opportunities if they want to win games in the first division.

The bowling got better after the first 10-15 overs and had the chances been taken, they could have bowled Alcorcon out twice inside 30 overs.

The batting got off to a great start as Morgan looked in imperious form opening the batting. He was involved in a run-out though as Little (1) was unfortunate. Burchell came in at three and he and Morgan built what looked like could be a match winning innings before Burchell (24) was stumped just before the half way stage.

Levante had reached 132/2 and needed around 7 an over before disaster struck as Morgan (55) was bowled to one that perhaps kept a little low. As so often happens, one brings two and Usman (22) on debut was out lbw to Tariq. Suddenly Levante were in trouble at 132/4 and a slight rescue job needed. Eaton and Noon saw them to the 150 mark before Eaton (7) was run out and then Matthews (0) followed straight after.

A difficult task had now become even harder and wickets continued to fall. Orville (5) was bowled, as was Tivey (1) to leave Levante on 165/8. A nice knock of 21 by Qasim and a resilient 26 from skipper Noon saw Levante get passed the 200 mark but they were eventually all out for 204 when Noon holed out to mid wicket. Martin the not out batsman at the other end.

This was a game of missed opportunities for Levante and work will need to be done on the training field as they simply cannot drop so many chances. However, the spirit and talent within the side cannot be questioned and in defeat they have proven that they are match for anyone in this division.

Thanks to Alcorcon for a game played in great spirit and we look forward to the return game in La Manga. Thanks also to Keith and the guy from Madrid for doing a great job umpiring.

Alcorcon win by 42 runs (19 points). Levante 8 points.

Alcorcon CC Batting     

Levante Cricket Club Levante CC Bowling