May the Forth be with you

Just like in Star Wars, with the Death Star being destroyed twice, LMTCC fell short with 2 defeats vs the Norweigan Side, Friends CC.

The morning game saw LMTCC field first but the Friends CC batters taking early dominance. An unfortunately injury from one of the Friends CC batters saw them with only 10 men for the rest of the day but they carried on in good spirits.

By the end of the first innings, Friends CC had scored a grand 196/3 off 20 overs. 2 wickets were taken by P.Singh as K.Wood took 2 catches at Deep-Midwickets and then F. Shahzad got himself a wicket bowling out one of the Friends CC Batters near the end. Here is how the LMTCC bowlers looked:

F. Shahzad 29/1 off 4 overs

Ad. Hussain 27/0 off 2

S. Godan 32/0 off 3

P. Singh 42/2 off 4

M. Wilson-Pestel 22/0 off 3

A. Court 18/0 off 2

G. Singh 16/0 off 2

K. Wood with 2 catches but the Extras were the 3rd highest scorer with 31 behind the Friends CC Opener Raul with 40 and no.4 Yasir with 38.

LMTCC ,in reply, had T.Knowles and K.Wood open the batting but wickets fell regularly with the score building slowly. LMTCC eventually batted the full 20 overs with a score off 102/9.

Highlights saw Opener K. Wood score 29 and S. Payne scoring her first runs for LMTCC with an unbeaten 5*.

T. Knowles 4

K. Wood 29

S. Godan 1

A. Anwar 0

G. Singh 13

F. Shahzad 3

Ad. Hussain 14

P. Singh 1

A. Court 3

M. Wilson-Pestel 0*

S. Payne 5*

A defeat by 94 runs saw the Norweigans take an early lead as they went for some teas and an hour before the second game starts.

After a nice break and teas had. It was time for LMTCC to bat first.

K. Wood opened the batting again but this time joined by D. Mcclements and the 2 got off to a flyer scoring 60 off the first 6 overs.

D. Mcclements fell to a slower ball bouncer as T. Knowles came in at 3 and brought the score up to 74 off 8 overs along with K. Wood.

T. Knowles fell bowled too in the 9th over with K. Wood following the over after. 84/3 after 10 overs but the wickets started to tumble again afterwards with only 2 batters reaching double figures.

LMTCC Junior W. Higgins made another senior appearance and scored 2 runs to his name batting at 9 before being caught in the last over by a good catch. M. Wilson-Pestel still unbeaten for LMTCC in 2024.

LMTCC made their way to 143/10 off 19.4 overs. Here is how your LMTCC batters did.

D. Mcclements 24

K. Wood 22

T. Knowles 5

F. Shahzad 7

G. Singh 12

Ad. Hussain 7

P. Singh 4

A. Anwar 8

W. Higgins 2

A. Court 12

M. Wilson-Pestel 3*

144 to defend and LMTCC got off to a flyer as Ad. Hussain opened the bowling and forced a big shot where K.Wood took a high catch at mid-on. Followed by Ad. Hussain claiming 2 more wickets, both bowled in the following overs. D. Mcclements on the other end caused some problems and kept the runs dry.

G. Singh and M. Wilson-Pestel came on after the powerplay and M. Wilson-Pestel claimed 3 wickets in his overs too. 76/6 off 11 meant the game was still 50/50 as G. Singh and P. Singh took turns bowling from one end whilst A. Anwar and Junior W. Higgins bowled from the other end. The score ticked over but an expensive over from P. Singh in the 19th over meant that W. Higgins was defending 1 in the last over. 2 dot balls but the Friends CC batters managed to hit a 6 on the 3rd ball to win the game.

Here is how your LMTCC bowlers finished in the close finish:

Ad. Hussain 16/3 off 3

D. Mcclements 23/0 off 3

M. Wilson-Pestel 38/3 off 4

G. Singh 25/0 off 3

H. Singh 1/20 off 3

A. Anwar 10/0 off 2

W. Higgins 15/0 off 1.3

Catches from K. Wood, G. Singh, A. Court and Ad. Hussain (2) made it a close game but on the contrary, 35 extras were the downfall for the LMTCC side.

Cricket was played in good spirits once again as lot of laughs were had between the 2 teams and the Norweigans leave La Manga Cricket and Golf resort with 2 wins from 2, some good memories and good vibes. We thank Friends CC for their travels and chosing LMTCC for their tour and hope they travel home safely.

Onwards and upwards for LMTCC as this saturday 11th May, we return to Spanish League cricket. LMTCC Travel north to Alfas del Pi for the 40 over fixture.

Team will be posted during the week so keep your eyes out for us again soon!

LMTCC.

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