FUENGIROLA WIN SEASON DECIDER

FUENGIROLA WIN SOUTHERN LEAGUE DECIDER

Championship Decider – Third and final Leg

Fuengirola CC v Combined Colleges CC 

10^th July 2011

Fuengirola won the toss and elected to bat.

Fuengirola 258 for 8 beat Combined Colleges 164 all out by CC 92 runs

“Catches win matches” is a snappy little phrase commonly heard in cricket circles.  Six of the eight wickets taken by Combined Colleges were by means of catches taken, so why did they not win?  The first part of the answer lies in the nine dropped catches which mainly preceded the ones which stuck.

 The Fuengirola openers came to the crease in determined fashion, plundering 13 runs of the second over then racing to 103 off 15 overs amid a flurry of dropped catches.  The Combined Colleges bowlers got a grip around that stage and applied the brakes a bit, restricting Fuengirola to 23 runs off 7 overs for the loss of two wickets, ironically both to catches. 

A drinks break re-vitalised Fuengirola who took advantage of their strong position to throw the bat with abandon.  Wickets fell at regular intervals but this did not slow the run rate and Fuengirola went on to add 130 runs in the last 13 overs.  Fuengirola’s openers Shahid Kasana (48) and Nadeem Hassan (93) were the rocks on which the innings was built.

Another part of the answer to the earlier question lies in the strength of Fuengirola’s bowling attack.  Yet another lies in their eager and effective fielding.  They simply starved Combined Colleges of runs.  After 10 overs only 35 runs had been scored for the loss of Azard run out by a direct hit from a long, strong throw from Shahid Kasana at long on. 

This brought Nushan to the crease looking in good attacking form and likely to make a lot of runs.  And who knows? – he might have done if he hadn’t struck a massively powerful straight drive back towards the bowler just below knee height for Tanveer to take the catch of the match.  How it didn’t pull his arms out of their sockets we’ll never know.

Two over later Brian and Shoaib were in a hopeless tangle, both near the same end and the run out was a mere formality.  So, 15 over gone, 61 for 3.  For a brief period it seemed as if Previn and Shoaib might be able to turn things around until Shoaib pulled the ball straight to Shahid Kasana in the deep at backward square leg.  Shahid, like the rest of the Fuengirola team wasn’t suffering from the dropsy epidemic and that was the end of Shoaib.  It was the end too of any realistic chance of victory for Combined Colleges.  Fuengirola duly emerged victorious by a large margin with three overs to spare. 

It would be invidious even to try to pick a man of the match for this one.  Any award could only go the way of the victors.  Did their opening batsmen contribute more than their four main bowlers  and did either of those groups contribute more than the splendid fielding performance?  On this occasion there can only be a hearty “well done everyone” to the whole Fuengirola team who can now bask in the title of Champions of Southern Spain.  Well done them – may they bask away to their hearts content.  Until September that is, when they begin their defence of the title.