Crow Road v Alps, 12/05/2007

Crow Road v Alps
WDCU Div 5, Old Anniesland, 12/05/2007

Crow Road won toss and elected to field

Alps
* Siddiqui retired hurt 54
Paton not out 85
Stone b Christie 3
Ahuja lbw b Christie 5
# Jones lbw b Christie 9
McLaren b Iqbal 16
Harding b Iqbal 0
Murray b Christie 7
Bashir b Christie 0
Gleed not out 1
Extras 57
Total (7 wkts, 50 ovs) 237
Smart did not bat

I Hussain 6-0-16-0, Smillie 7-0-26-0, Christie 16-1-67-5,
A Hussain 13-1-74-0, Malik 5-0-21-0, Iqbal 3-0-16-2

Crow Road
A Mustoe b Smart 1
A Hussain b Smart 15
A Christie b Stone 4
G Smillie c Stone b Gleed 18
# M Hussain b Stone 73
I Hussain c Harding b Bashir 4
A Malik b Stone 14
Z Iqbal b Stone 0
* A Rixon lbw b Murray 5
G Semple b Stone 0
D Tate not out 0
Extras 51
Total (all out, 45 ovs) 185

Smart 15-2-34-2, Stone 11-0-25-5, Gleed 8-0-38-1,
Bashir 3-0-38-1, Harding 3-0-26-0, Murray 5-2-13-1

Alps won by 52 runs
Alps 25 pts, Crow Road 8 pts

Match Report

A brilliant innings of 73 from Mobeen, undoubtedly the standout performance of Crow Road’s season so far, was not enough to stave off defeat against the Alps after a generally disappointing team display. On a grey day on the magic carpet at Old Anniesland, Alps’ 237-7 was probably 30 runs above par, and with the Crow Road batsmen struggling to build partnerships, only fleetingly did it ever look under threat.

As 1pm approached, the outfield was still damp from morning rain, and in hindsight Rixon’s decision to bowl first may have been a mistake. The match ball quickly became wet and difficult to grip, and this, coupled with a rather flat performance in the field, allowed Alps’ opening pair to move serenely past 100. In the early stages, they barely managed to hit the ball off the square, but didn’t really need to as opening bowlers Ijaz and Smillie interspersed their good balls with two or three extras each over. When Yoda and Adil were brought on, however, the ball started to disappear off the square with alarming regularity. Yoda opened his season with a rank half-tracker that was smashed for 4 and Adil struggled for control with a ball that was by now extremely greasy.

Siddiqui was the first of the openers to reach 50 and they were both looking relatively untroubled when the Old Anniesland astroturf injury jinx stuck again. In an incident eerily reminiscent of Ashutosh’s broken nose, Siddiqui top edged a full toss into his mouth and had to leave the pitch streaming blood and minus two front teeth. Unfortunate as this was, it did finally give Crow Road the opportunity to get stuck into the Alps middle order and Yoda proved more than equal to the task. First, he bowled the No. 3, then won two LBW decisions – against Ahuja (who failed to connect with a particularly agricultural mow) and Jones.

The 4th wicket pair progressed steadily to 212 before Zishaan made a double breakthrough in the 46th over, pitching the ball up to bowl McLaren and Harding. Yoda then produced a repeat performance in the final over, knocking over two of the lower order batsmen to finish with a career-best 5-67. Still, the good finish couldn’t disguise a disappointing overall showing in the field. There weren’t many really expensive overs or bad misfields (and there was only one dropped catch, ironically by Duncan who was otherwise the best fielder on the day) – it was just a general lack of sharpness from the fielders and inconsistency from the bowlers that caused the problems, summed up by a huge total of 57 Extras.

The target was therefore a stiff one – 237 – although the weather had cleared up and the Crow Road batting line-up went quite deep for once. After a bad start, when Ally Mustoe and Yoda both fell early against nagging swing bowling, Adil and Smillie steadied the ship with some sound defence. It wasn’t the most fluent of partnerships, but did see off the new ball and laid the platform for the big-hitters in the middle order.

When Adil was bowled for 15, Mobeen came to the crease with the required run rate just above 6 an over and straight away settled into a mode of controlled attack. While he didn’t score any boundaries to start with, he also kept the dot balls to a minimum, picking off 1s and 2s with ease. This rubbed off on Smillie, who had got a bit bogged down, and together they moved the score to 93 in the 30th over. More significantly, Alps had now brought on bowlers who were far easier to score off than their openers. It was therefore to his immense frustration that, having done all the hard work, Smillie holed out to a fielder just inside the ropes as he tried to open his shoulders. It looked like Crow Road’s key man was gone – but not today. The real key man was still there, at the other end, and he was only just getting started.

Supported first by Ijaz and then Azeem, Mobeen proceeded to massacre the bowling with a succession of huge shots through the leg side. One Bashir over disappeared for 20, then another from Harding went for 14 as at one stage Mobeen racked up 40 from 18 balls. His partnership with Azeem (who joined in the fun with a big straight 6) had reached 61, and the score 171-5 off 39.5 overs, when Azeem was bowled for 14. Zishaan followed soon after but, in contrast to the approach the opposition might have taken, Crow Road decided to keep pressing for the win. Needing 54 off 7 overs, it was just about still on until Stone struck the crucial blow, bowling Mobeen for a career-best 73 (off just 58 balls with 11x4).

Immediately attention turned to saving the draw, with Rixon, Semple and Duncan not famed for their range of shots. Unfortunately Semple rather inappropriately attempted to hoick a straight one and was bowled second ball, after which Rixon proceeded to make a bit of a fool of himself. Trying to steal a single through backward point to farm the strike, he was dismissed in about as embarrassing a way as is possible: LBW hit on the box reverse-sweeping. With 5 overs left unbowled, Alps took the win by 52 runs – a win that was, on the overall balance of play, fully deserved. In time, though, you have to wonder if this game might be remembered for something more significant than the result – namely the innings where one of GHK’s promising youngsters started to deliver on their potential and hopefully laid the platform for plenty more major contributions in future.