Crow Road v Whiteinch, 25/08/2007

Crow Road v Whiteinch
WDCU Div 5, Old Anniesland, 25/08/2007

Whiteinch won toss and elected to bat

Whiteinch
McGinnis lbw b I Hussain 6
Salar b Christie 34
# Wasif c Stewart b Allen 75
Akhtar run out (Rixon) 68
Aamar c Blaal Hussain b Allen 4
Adnan b Allen 4
* Quddoos b Mehmood 3
Sohail b Mehmood 0
Hogg not out 1
Mahsood b Blaal Hussain 7
Zulfiqar not out 2
Extras 25
Total (9 wkts, 40 ovs) 229

Allen 11-1-44-3, Mehmood 12-2-26-2, I Hussain 4-0-29-1,
Christie 5-0-41-1, Iqbal 6-0-67-0, Bilal Hussain 1-0-6-0,
Blaal Hussain 1-0-5-1

Crow Road
# A Mishra b Sohail 2
G Smillie b Akhtar 1
T Mehmood b Quddoos 79
G Stewart b Akhtar 1
A Christie run out 0
* A Rixon b Akhtar 0
I Hussain b Akhtar 2
Bilal Hussain b Quddoos 1
Z Iqbal not out 9
Blaal Hussain st Wasif b Quddoos 0
E Allen b Mahsood 0
Extras 26
Total (all out, 25.4 ovs) 121

Sohail 4-0-19-1, Akhtar 8-3-10-4, Quddoos 9-0-54-3,
Mahsood 4.4-0-30-1

Whiteinch won by 108 runs
Crow Road 6 pts, Whiteinch 25 pts

Match Report

Crow Road’s 2007 season drew to a close in disappointing fashion at Old Anniesland as a strong Whiteinch side eased to victory in a match marred by some unsporting behaviour. Whiteinch, Victoria’s 2nd XI, fielded one player who wouldn’t be out of place in the SNCL, and he duly put in match-winning performances with both bat and ball to ensure Crow Road were never in contention. Despite this clear gulf in class, however, the visitors still felt compelled to produce a succession of scandalous umpiring decisions during their batting innings which set an unpleasant tone for the rest of the match. The nadir was reached when a succession of close shouts by Tariq were rejected by an umpire who claimed “I will never give an lbw, so don’t bother appealing for them”. The Whiteinch captain then ran on to the field to confront Tariq about his ‘excessive appealing’ – behaviour which may result in Crow Road following the lead of Home Park and lodging a formal complaint about the Victoria side with the WDCU committee.

The match itself was an 80-over affair, with the start delayed until 2pm due to a sodden outfield. Given the rooster-tail of spray that kicked up every time the ball rolled across the grass, it was a bad toss to lose, but lose it Rixon did and Crow Road were duly asked to bowl first. For a variety of reasons, only 7 of Crow Road’s XI actually made it on to the field for the first over, but Ewan Allen showed he didn’t need any fielders by keeping the ball full and straight and pinning the Whiteinch opener plumb in front, only to receive a shake of the head from the umpire.

Crow Road were soon up to a full eleven, but there wasn’t much to chase in the field as the ball kept hitting the pads. With the umpires turning down Ewan and Tariq’s every appeal, however, there was little option but to try other bowlers. Ijaz came on and somehow managed to win an lbw decision with his fifth ball, then Yoda replaced Tariq and picked up the second wicket in his third over. These successes brought Wasif and Akhtar together at the crease and they demonstrated the carnage that can be wreaked when aggressive players with a good eye take on the short boundaries around the Old Anniesland astro. Ijaz, Yoda and Zishaan all came in for heavy punishment as 6 after 4 after 6 was dispatched either straight or over the leg side and the score raced towards 200 at close to a run a ball.

Ewan came back on to stem the tide and made the crucial breakthrough when he had Wasif sky one over point, where the ever-reliable Gordi Stewart ran back to take a fine catch. This was the start of Ewan’s best spell yet for the club as he cleaned up the rest of the middle order to finish with 3-44. Meanwhile Akhtar ran himself out, Tariq came back on to take two wickets in two balls and Blaal inevitably took a wicket in his first over (as he has done every time he’s bowled for Crow Road this year). In spite of this late collapse, however, Whiteinch’s final score of 229-9 off 40 overs still represented a tough target for Crow Road.

Back in June, a top three of Smillie, Ashutosh and Tariq scored 152 between them to lay the foundations for the epic run-chase against Scotindians. Now, the same three players had to repeat the trick if Crow Road were to mount a victory charge. Unfortunately, just two balls into the innings, Ashutosh missed a straight one and was sent packing. This may have been a sensible move on his part, however, as the bowler who opened from the other end turned out to be surely one of the quickest ever seen in Division 5. Not content with his earlier 50, Akhtar destroyed the Crow Road middle order with bowling well in excess of 70mph, made all the more difficult to play because his run-up and arm action were relatively slow.

In his last game for GHK before moving to Bournemouth, Smillie was bowled by one he claimed not to have seen – an unfortunate end to his fantastic season for the 3s, in which he scored almost double the runs of the next best batsman despite missing several matches with a broken finger. Gordi Stewart replaced him and clung on grimly for 22 balls before he also had his stumps demolished by Akhtar. This brought Yoda to the wicket and he provided a bit of black comedy among all the carnage, being bowled first ball off what turned out to be an Akhtar no-ball, only to be run out having wandered from his crease. The procession continued as Rixon and Ijaz were also bowled by Akhtar, who was finally, mercifully brought off after completing 8 overs, 7 of which had seen no runs come off the bat.

Having managed to survive the collapse, Tariq was now well placed to cash in against the change bowlers and he unsurprisingly let rip with a thrilling barrage of boundaries. At one stage he hit consecutive balls for 46646614, moving from 29 to 79 in the space of 18 balls and adding 64 for the 8th wicket with Zishaan (who contributed 4). After Tariq was bowled by a full toss, Zishaan continued to work the ball around nicely, but received scant support from Billy, Blaal and Ewan and was left stranded as the innings closed on 121 (triggering a mass exodus to Kelburne to watch the conclusion of the 1s title-clinching victory)..

With nine home batsmen failing to pass two, the scorecard didn’t make for very pretty reading, but the overall haul of 6 bonus points was sufficient to confirm Crow Road in 6th place in the final Division 5 table for 2007, a fair reflection on a solid season. Given that we lost both of last year’s opening batsmen and one of the opening bowlers over the winter, this year could have been a real struggle. However, a number of squad players have upped their game and contributed the extra runs and wickets required, meaning that our results have stayed roughly the same as in 2006. Of course next year we won’t have Smillie, so each player will have to improve by 20% again to fill the gap, but we’re such a young team that I’m sure we can manage that and, with some luck, mount a promotion challenge.

Ultimately, though, the main key to success in Division 5 is simply to field a full team week-in, week-out. Thanks to the 45 players...yes, 45...who appeared for Crow Road this season, we managed to do it in pretty much every match. You can’t underestimate how important that is in securing a good league placing, so to all 45 of you, thanks very much and see you again next season.