Concorde v Magdelan CC

Match Report

SPIN TWINS TIE MAGDALEN IN KNOTS

We last played Magdalen Cricket Club two years ago. In fact, this was our first ever game against them and they gave us a sound thrashing. It was a relief, therefore, to be able to put out against them, one of the strongest sides that Concorde have raised over the last 4/5 years.

On winning the toss, Imran, the opposition Captain elected to bat first and were faced by Adam and Brandon who bowled with pace and plenty of swing and in spite of inducing a number of false shots and edges, we were unable to take advantage so that they raced to 46 before Brandon brought one back to clip the outside of off stump.

Captain Imran and the opener then batted soundly to move the score to 85 before the Opener was trapped LBW by Nikhil who has replaced Adam. Josh had replaced Brandon and he too came to the party by inducing a pushed drive to short extra cover where Nigel Wright took the catch with aplomb.

Nikhil now settled into a miserly spell, bowling a little slower and with more air than usual, that seemed to completely scramble the batsmen’s minds and led to a succession of wickets for Nikhil as batsmen either defended for their lives or swung across the line. The occasional quicker ball was also used to good effect so that Nikhil tore the heart out of the middle order leaving them 111 – 6 and then 140 -7. A nice safe catch was taken by Adam at deep mid wicket and a superb tumbling effort off his ankles by Jordy, also at deep mid wicket, was the highlight of the fielding effort.

Young Ben Westen bowled 4 tight overs and then Edgar came on to dispose of the tail in 3 overs of masterly leg spin to finish with 3 – 5. The last wicket was a classic of its kind as the number 11 left a ball which was 18 inches outside off stump only to watch it spin sharply in and hit middle stump.

We went to tea facing a target of 148.

Jordy and Edgar set after the target after tea in very positive fashion with Jordy in particular looking very aggressive and after 10 overs the score had reached 52. With both players smiting big sixes regularly, Jordy passed 50 before being rather surprisingly bowled for 55 with the score on 101. Joined by Brandon, who too looked in aggressive mood, the score continued to bound along before Edgar could not resist the urge to play back and across the line and was LBW for 48. A serious case of jug avoidance if ever there was one!

Ashley joined Brandon and these two took us home without further alarm to a very comfortable 8 wicket win.

Nikhil finished with the splendid analysis of 12 0vers, 5 -19 and in the process took his seasons haul to 17 at a mind blowing average of just above 6 per wicket. It should also be pointed out that Brandon is currently averaging 66 with the bat as well as having taken 13 wickets.