CORDOBA TURN THE TABLES ON COMBINED COLLEGES

Southern Spanish Cricket League

Cordoba CC v Combined CCC  23 May 2010.                            Won by Cordoba CC by 147 Runs.

Combined CCC won the toss and elected to Bowl.

Cordoba CC 276 for 6, 20 points.                       Combined CCC 129 all out, 5 points.

Combined Colleges made their final visit to Cordoba this season and are no doubt thankful they won’t have to make the trip again.  Electing to bowl after winning the toss, Combined Colleges bowled and fielded tightly early on.  In the third over Brian Barrett found the edge of the openers bat for the keeper to take the catch – 10 for 1.  A very smart run out by Rizmi Latheef in the eighth over saw the score at 33 for 2 and the decision to bowl first looked good.  Cordoba’s Shoaib Hussain came to the wicket with other ideas and stayed put for the duration, scoring 141 not out in the next 27 overs.

Even so after sixteen overs Combined Colleges were in the hunt, restraining Cordoba to just 5 an over at 81 for 2.  The early afternoon heat was building and the bowlers wilting and as the innings wore on so the run rate increased with 81 runs coming off the last seven overs.  Combined Colleges were able to take only four more wickets after the eighth over, two for Ashan Alwis and one each for Rayeez Buhary and Previn Menon.  For Cordoba, Adil Raza with 40, Tahir Mehmood, 19 Kashif Mehmood, 13 and Waqas Ahmed, 11 kept the other end going very well while Shoaib built his tremendous innings.

After a pleasant lunch of chicken biryani and rice Cordoba took the field in high spirits, knowing that Combined Colleges would need to bat very well indeed to win.  Losing two wickets to successive deliveries in the second over is not commonly regarded as batting well.  Imran Butt had Ashan Alwis caught by Abid Mohammed at mid on from his third ball and Previn Menon caught brilliantly in the covers by Mustafa off the fourth.  With the hat-trick not materialising Nushan Alwis went on to play a delightfully aggressive innings of 25 before falling bowled by Tahir Mehmood.  Mark Ward, coming in at two wickets down, played an excellent sheet anchor innings as usual, remaining unbeaten on 48 at the end. 

Imran Butt, having rested for 13 overs, returned to the attack and with the first ball of his second over of the new spell had Rayeez Buharry caught behind by Adil Raza.  Next ball he despatched Imthiyas Shaheed caught by Shoaib Hussain at point to be on his second chance of a hat-trick in the innings.  With Imran already credited with a “five-fer” there could be no suggestion of jug avoidance when the hat-trick once again passed him by.  Combined Colleges’ innings ended in the 25^th over, leaving Cordoba in high good humour at the top of the league and Combined Colleges facing a long and unhappy journey home knowing their club is propping up the league.

Question -What does Imran Butt with two hat-trick opportunities in his 5 wickets for 21 have to do to be in with a chance of man of the match?  Answer – Do it again on a day when his skipper doesn’t win the nomination by amassing the league’s first century and going on to dominate the match with 141 not out.

                                 P    W    T   NR    L   BP  Pts
Cordoba                     4    2    0    0    2   30   50
Malaga                       4    2    0    0    2   27   47
Combined Colleges      4    2    0    0    2   26   46