MADRID POISED FOR SEMI FINAL SPOT IN THE LEAGUE

Madrid Cricket Club – 17-06-2007 – Match Report

Madrid Cricket Club 217 (44.5 overs) bt Mojacar 109 (38.5 overs) by 108 runs.

The return league match between Madrid Cricket Club and Mojacar promised to be a tight affair, with a pumped up Mojacar looking to reverse the result of the first match and prove themselves the top club in the Southern league.

Mojacar’s captain Phil Beal won the toss and elected to putMadridin to bat hoping that their strong bowling attack would carve through theMadridbatting line up.

Ben Parfitt and Phil Beal opened the bowling and opening bat Muhammad Akmal was fortunate to survive early on, dropped twice off Phil Beal and once off Ben Parfitt.  However, once those chances passed, there was little other pressure in the opening spell and the new ball was soon being regularly retrieved from the boundary as Jimmy Ashraf and Muhammad Akmal took the attack to Mojacar with some clinical hitting.

Beal responded with a change at one end, bringing on Pete Finch who in his second over tempted Ashraf into another boundary attempt and his mis-timed drive was caught by S Lewis. The opening partnership had lasted nine overs for 49 runs at just over 5 an over.

Akmal then accelerated to hit 23 runs off the next 13 balls to reach his maiden half-century for Madrid CC in the league off just 43 balls, supported valiantly by batting partner Zubin Cooper.

Parfitt impressed with his bowling as in the first encounter between these two sides, and bowled all nine of his overs in one spell for only the loss of 39 runs and, as in the first encounter, was unfortunate not to take any wickets.

Beal then searched through his various bowlers to try to find a winning formula, before relying on the father and son combination of Jem and Keith Rose, who between them started to limit the Madrid CC scoring rate to under 5 an over. The batting partnership was then broken by a fantastic delivery from Keith Rose, clean bowling Akmal for a very fine 68 runs, who shared a partnership of 62 runs with Cooper. At 22 overs into the match the score was very much inMadrid’s favour at 121-2.

Keith Rose having secured the vital wicket continued only for a couple more overs before being replaced by Dave Redpath who tightened the screw onMadrid’s batsmen, bowling an exceptionally economical spell of textbook line and length at just over 3 runs an over. Jem Rose meanwhile started to carve through theMadridline up, with two close LBW decisions, first danger man Kayur Patel and then the ever-solid Zubin Cooper for 37 runs after an impressive and very controlled innings, leavingMadridvery well placed at 170-4.

The expected explosion of runs fromMadrid’s exceptional middle order failed to transpire through a mix of bad fortune and through some impressive bowling from Phil Beal. Nadeem Alvi was the exception and batted solidly for the second match in a row, scoring 32 runs off 49 balls before being caught by S Lewis off Phil Beal.Madrid’s innings then petered out to a par score of 217 all out, with the final wicket falling on the second to last ball of the innings. Mojacar now held their destiny in their own hands having limitedMadridto less than the 250 runs that looked well within reach at the half-way point.

Madridstarted their defense positively with aggressive field placements and lively banter amongst the players all of whom fielded sharply throughout the whole of the Mojacar innings, impressing both opposition and spectators.

Opening bowlers Irshad Khan and Stewart Lunn bowled tightly and aggressively and rewards came very quickly with the new ball, first with Lunn removing opening bat Pete Finch in his second over caught smartly by Zubin Cooper and then Khan catching danger man Ben Parfitt leg before after a spell of dazzling bowling which was at times unplayable. Khan finished his spell with 1 wicket off 6 overs, but it could easily have been many more.

P Munden and Jem Rose then batted solidly against some very accurate bowling by Zubin Cooper at one end and Jem Rose generally taking more risks and scoring more freely against bowler Nadeem Alvi, until Alvi broke the partnership thanks to some sharp keeping by Tim Doust who continued his fine form behind the stumps catching Munden who had scored a slow but steady 17 off 63 balls.

Phil Beal then came in needing to produce a captain’s innings to steady the ship. Some early LBW decisions went his way and he looked to be showing some good form until Cooper produced an absolute ripper of a ball which swung in the air and found the gap between bat and pad dislodging the leg stump bail with Phil on 13 runs.

Alvi then tied up Jem Rose at the other end and eventually the pressure told and Rose tried to overplay a great delivery and wound up leg before to leave Mojacar at 87-5 after 28 overs having topped their scoring with 27 runs.

The remaining batsmen from Mojacar struggled to find any form with the bat, andMadrid’s third bowling partnership of Rashid Masih and man of the match Muhammad Akmal cleaned up the remaining middle order and tail for a little under 25 runs. Masih took 1 for 11 off his 5 overs, and Akmal 3 for 10, assisted byMadrid’s tight fielding and catching. Mojacar finished all out for 109 after just 38.5 overs.

Madrid’s celebrations after the match were exuberant – after another grueling double-header weekend with a weakened bowling attack,Madridhad still shown true grit, team spirit and a high level of intensity to end the weekend 4 wins out of 4 matches, and definite qualifiers for the semi-finals ahead of pre-season southern league favorites Mojacar.

The first win at the beginning of June against Mojacar was a tight affair which Mojacar partially threw away. The return match proved to be a different affair and was a demoralizing 108 run loss for Mojacar, but was all about howMadridplayed and deserved to win – a feat repeated later on that evening by another ofMadrid’s sporting successes, Real Madrid againstMallorca, to win La Liga. HalaMadrid!

Stewart Lunn