Madrid Cricket Club – 16-06-2007 – Match Report
Madrid Cricket Club 293-7 (45 overs) bt Albox 125 (26.3 overs) by 168 runs.
Albox Cavaliers won the toss on another sunny and hot Saturday at the La Manga resort cricket ground and elected to field.
Madridopeners Jimmy Ashraf and Kayur Patel batted solidly against the new ball amassing runs at a steady rate of 4 an over, patiently defending good balls and punishing anything inches wide of the batting crease. Opening bowler T Wilton was the tidier of the two with the new ball, but it was M Mohammad who found the eventual breakthrough, delivering a ball that straightened beautifully off the seam to leave Jimmy Ashraf leg before, caught playing no shot. Jimmy had amassed 32 valuable runs off 39 balls for an opening partnership of 47 runs.
Kayur Patel then worked the ball around the ground with a calm and steady precision supported first by Zubin Cooper and then by Muhammad Akmal, both of whom fell to the second string Cavalier’s bowling attack.
The arrival of Nadeem Alvi at the crease marked the start of a period of continuous acceleration byMadrid’s batsmen, with Nadeem ferociously striking his way to 33 runs off 33 balls before being unlucky to have a very close lbw call go against him off the pick of the Albox bowlers G Oliphant (3-43).
Irhsad Khan came in next for Madrid, and for half an hour and 18 balls smashed the Albox bowling out of the ground in all directions, totally disheartening the fielding side. Kayur Patel also joined in at the other end with some aggressive hitting reaching his well-deserved maiden half-century in the league. His innings ended shortly afterwards, caught out on the boundary unselfishly trying to continue the run-fest, ending on 54 runs off 79 balls.
Khan soon followed caught off the bowling of G Oliphant, having amassed 41 runs in his short time at the crease. Captain Manny Fernandez (38*) and Jonathan Woodward (24) completed the rout with Madridbuilding up a record league batting performance at La Manga, finishing on 293-7.
In response, Albox started very positively despite losing opener D Langsford to the very first ball of the innings thanks to a sharp catch from behind the stumps off a loose full toss. The talented Mohammad brothers hit boundaries off all bowlers and all balls, taking as many risks as possible with the early fielding restrictions in place.
The breakthrough came eventually with S Mohammad (26 runs off 20 balls) attempting one big hit too many against the accurate seam bowling of Nadeem Alvi. The ball carried perfectly to deep mid-on fielder Kayur Patel who took the catch with ease.
W Mohammad continued to score at will but received little support at the other end as bowlers Nadeem Alvi (3-37) and Zubin Cooper (1-24) tore through the middle order, taking no prisoners.
A change of bowling at both ends to bring on Madrid’s spinners saw the end of Albox resistance as danger man W Mohammad was caught out off the bowling of man of the match Kayur Patel having battered his way to 47 runs off 30 balls with the score 110-6.
Muhammad Akmal then proceeded to bewilder the remaining batsmen finding phenomenal amounts of turn off the pitch and taking wicket after wicket to edges and mis-hits, with only G Oliphant (22) offering any further resistance.
The final wicket fell in the 27th over, with wicket keeper taking his second stumping of the day, leaving Akmal with the superb figures of 4 for 15 off his 5.3 overs. Albox had only managed to put on 15 runs for the last 4 wickets.
An ecstatic Madrid were grateful for the early finish, with the weary and injury depleted squad needing all the extra hours to rest for the crunch Sunday match against Mojacar, which if won would mean a guaranteed semi-final berth.
Madridhave begun to look like the “real thing”, improving match after match despite personnel changes and always operating as a team. The future bodes well however the summer progresses……
Stewart Lunn
Cricket España – League South
Madrid vs Albox Cavaliers – 16th June 2007 (45-over match)
Madrid 293-7 (45 overs) bt Albox Cavaliers 125 (26.3 overs) by 168 runs.
| Fall of Wickets | |||||||||||
| Madrid Innings | R | M | B | 4s | 6s | SR | Runs | Bat Out | |||
| M Ashraf | lbw M.Mohammad | 32 | 40 | 39 | 4 | 0 | 82,05 | 1 | -47 | M Ashraf | |
| K Patel | c T.Wilton b G.Oliphant | 54 | 142 | 79 | 6 | 0 | 68,35 | 2 | -81 | Z Cooper | |
| Z Cooper | c S.Mohammad b D.Langstone | 13 | 28 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 72,22 | 3 | -104 | M Akmal | |
| M Akmal | c M.Mohammad b M.Smith | 15 | 13 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 83,33 | 4 | -164 | N Alvi | |
| N Alvi | lbw G.Oliphant | 33 | 37 | 33 | 2 | 1 | 100,00 | 5 | -220 | K Patel | |
| I Khan | c T.Wilton b G.Oliphant | 41 | 29 | 18 | 1 | 4 | 227,78 | 6 | -227 | I Khan | |
| M Fernandez (c) | Not Out | 38 | 48 | 37 | 6 | 0 | 102,70 | 7 | -288 | J Woodward | |
| J Woodward | b T.Wilton | 24 | 34 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 96,00 | 8 | |||
| T Doust | Not Out | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 166,67 | 9 | |||
| S Lunn | Did Not Bat | 10 | |||||||||
| V Gupta | Did Not Bat | ||||||||||
| Extras | (b 0, lb 3, w 35, nb 0) | 38 | |||||||||
| Total | (7 wickets; 45 overs) | 293 | |||||||||
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | Ave | |
| T Wilton | 9 | 0 | 32 | 1 | 3,6 | 32,0 | (2w) |
| M Mohammad | 9 | 0 | 54 | 1 | 6,0 | 54,0 | (5w) |
| M Smith | 5 | 0 | 29 | 1 | 5,8 | 29,0 | (13w) |
| D Langstone | 9 | 0 | 47 | 1 | 5,2 | 47,0 | (5w) |
| L Harris | 6 | 0 | 50 | 0 | 8,3 | – | (4w) |
| G Oliphant | 5 | 0 | 43 | 3 | 8,6 | 14,3 | (4w) |
| B Norton | 2 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 17,5 | – | (2w) |
| Fall of Wickets | |||||||||||
| Albox Cavaliers Innings | R | M | B | 4s | 6s | SR | Runs | Bat Out | |||
| D Langstone | c T.Doust b I.Khan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0,00 | 1 | 0 | D Langsford | ||
| M Mohammad | c M.Akmal b K.Patel | 47 | 57 | 3 | 3 | 82,46 | 2 | -51 | S Mohammad | ||
| S Mohammad | c K.Patel b N.Alvi | 26 | 30 | 4 | 0 | 86,67 | 3 | -77 | M Mann | ||
| M Mann | st T.Doust b N.Alvi | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 125,00 | 4 | -79 | L Harris | ||
| L Harris | lbw Z.Cooper | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0,00 | 5 | -81 | M Smith | ||
| M Smith | c R.Masih b N.Alvi | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0,00 | 6 | -110 | M Mohammad | ||
| G Oliphant | c M.Ashraf b M.Akmal | 22 | 32 | 2 | 0 | 68,75 | 7 | -114 | E Cripps | ||
| E Cripps | c Z.Cooper b M.Akmal | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0,00 | 8 | -117 | T Wilton | ||
| T Wilton | c Z.Cooper b M.Akmal | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0,00 | 9 | -125 | G Oliphant | ||
| R Norton | Not Out | 3 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 15,79 | 10 | -125 | R Layhe | ||
| R Layhe | st T.Doust b M.Akmal | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0,00 | |||||
| Extras | (b 0, lb 3, w 15, nb 4) | 22 | |||||||||
| Total | (26.3 overs) | 125 | |||||||||
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | Ave | |
| I Khan | 3 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 4,3 | 13,0 | (1w, 1nb) |
| S Lunn | 4 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 5,8 | – | (2w, 3nb) |
| Z Cooper | 5 | 0 | 24 | 1 | 4,8 | 24,0 | (8w) |
| N Alvi | 5 | 0 | 37 | 3 | 7,4 | 12,3 | (2w) |
| M Akmal | 5,3 | 1 | 15 | 4 | 4,3 | 3,8 | |
| K Patel | 2 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 3,5 | 7,0 | (1w) |
| V Gupta | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1,5 | – | (1w) |