Scotindians v Crow Road, 09/06/2007

Scotindians v Crow Road
WDCU Div 5, Old Anniesland*, 09/06/2007
*Scotindians conceded home venue

Crow Road won toss and elected to field

Scotindians
Uday lbw b Afzal 3
Anil b Mehmood 9
# Shiva b Afzal 6
* Raj b Mehmood 24
Rajshekhar lbw b Mehmood 0
Albin b Mehmood 0
Kishan c Mishra b B Hussain 39
Avinash lbw b Mehmood 90
Balaji lbw b Mehmood 0
Krandhi not out 20
Sundel b I Hussain 16
Extras 50
Total (all out, 49.2 ovs) 257

Afzal 15-1-67-2, Mehmood 15-3-44-6, Khan 3-0-32-0,
Iqbal 6-0-46-0, I Hussain 8.2-0-28-1, B Hussain 2-0-21-1

Crow Road
G Smillie c Albin b Raj 103
# A Mishra run out 29
T Mehmood b Kishan 20
* A Rixon c Kishan b Raj 45
B Hussain b Raj 0
U Afzal b Kishan 9
I Hussain run out 17
U Ali not out 5
A Khan not out 1
Extras 24
Total (7 wkts, 50 ovs) 253
I Miller and Z Iqbal did not bat

Raj 15-0-80-3, Kishan 13-0-55-2, Avinash 15-1-68-0,
Krandhi 4-0-26-0, Balaji 3-0-23-0

Match drawn
Scotindians 18 pts, Crow Road 14 pts

Match Report

Crow Road came within one shot of beating table-topping Scotindians after an unforgettable run chase at Old Anniesland on Saturday. In what must surely be a contender for Division 5 game of the season, the balance of power shifted one way then the other right to the death, with Crow Road eventually needing six to win from the last ball of the 100th over. Although young Umar Ali could only manage a single, the jubilation among the Scotindians fielders at escaping with a draw was a clear indication of how well Crow Road had performed in pursuit of a mammoth 258 run target.

The innings was built around an outstanding 103 from Graham Smillie, who played far more freely than in any of his previous matches this season to ensure that the required run rate hovered at little more than 5 an over for almost the entire chase. Adding some superb off-drives to his more familiar repertoire of well placed 1s and 2s, he paced his innings beautifully until losing the strike for a couple of crucial overs near the end and eventually holing out to deep midwicket trying to make up for the lost momentum.

Smillie’s efforts were backed up by strong contributions from his top-order colleagues. Ashutosh dominated a 50 partnership for the first wicket, Tariq helped add another 50 for the second, then Rixon and Smillie reprised and ultimately exceeded their Home Park partnership to put on 107 for the third and take the score to 207-2 in the 39th over. It was only after Rixon’s dismissal that Crow Road’s relentless pursuit began to stutter as an inexperienced lower-middle order was exposed to the pressurised situation in the middle.

At that stage, with 51 more runs required to win off 10.4 overs, Crow Road were still favourites but Blaal was swiftly dispatched for 0 and big Umar then found it difficult to rotate the strike. By the time Umar was bowled, the target had moved on to a far more challenging 34 runs from 31 balls. Ijaz came to the crease to join Smillie (who was blissfully unaware that he was now into the nervous 90s) and they ran well between the wickets but still couldn’t prevent the required rate advancing to 8 an over. Amid the growing tension, Smillie was dropped off a skier on 99 and shortly afterwards completed a richly deserved maiden hundred from 127 balls in 150 minutes with 11x4. Three runs later, however, he miscued a slower ball to be caught on the midwicket boundary and finally end Crow Road’s chances of victory. Or so it seemed...

Scotindians’ opening bowlers were now back on and 24 runs were needed off 17 balls, but with 4 wickets still in hand there was no reason to give up the chase. Umar junior and Ijaz weren’t finding scoring easy – the next four balls went for 1-dot-dot-1 – but Ijaz regained the initiative with a big 6 off the final ball of the over to reduce the target to 16 off 12. Just four of those came from a well-bowled 49th over, but in a manic 50th there were byes, singles from Ijaz (who was run out coming back for a second), Umar and Ali, and a no-ball from what should have been the final delivery of the match to set up the classic scenario – 6 to win from the last ball. Wee Umar went for it but couldn’t get enough power on the shot and ran a single to complete a breathless draw.

Six hours earlier, everything had looked so much more straightforward. After winning the toss and choosing to bowl, Crow Road had Scotindians in dire straits at 70-6 with the wickets shared between Tariq and big Umar. The scoring rate was less than three an over and the decisive blow appeared to have been struck when Tariq bowled the Scotindians’ captain and most accomplished batsman, Raj, for 24. It could have been even worse for the league leaders had a couple of close lbws been given, though it should be said that the umpiring was far more even-handed than has been suggested in reports on other clubs’ websites.

It was at this point that the Scotindians’ innings, and the complexion of the entire match, was turned on its head by an explosive innings from their No. 8, Avinash. The Crow Road bowlers (with the exception of one over of full tosses that was smeared for 24) kept a decent line and length, but Avinash responded by repeatedly walking down the pitch to loft perfectly good deliveries over the leg side boundary for 6. He was well supported by the ultra-defensive Kishan, and the players’ contrasting styles were keeping the Crow Road fielders busy running in and out from the boundary ropes every time the strike rotated. As it was the hottest part of a glorious day, this proved very draining for our young set of players.

As the 7th wicket partnership moved well into three figures, big Umar and Tariq were brought back into the attack earlier than planned to try and re-establish some control. Eventually Tariq made the breakthrough, trapping Avinash lbw for an excellent 90 and he followed up by dismissing the No. 9 next ball to complete his second 6-wicket haul of 2007. Blaal’s golden arm then worked its magic as he had Kishan caught behind in his first over and, after a brief flurry of slogs from the last wicket pair, Ijaz finished off the innings at 257.

It looked like Crow Road would need fireworks from the two big-hitters in the order, Ashutosh and Tariq, to make any impression on such a large target. Ashutosh started uncertainly but after a change of bat he settled in and was soon flaying the bowling around. On 29, though, he was run out after a bad misjudgement by Smillie, then Tariq never really got going and was bowled for 20. Luckily these dismissals proved far less crucial than might have been expected as Smillie and Rixon seized the initiative and put together the partnership (by the end of which almost 400 runs had been scored for the loss of 6 wickets across the two innings) that really laid the platform for the dramatic conclusion.

Against a team who wouldn’t be out of place a league or two higher up, Crow Road raised their game significantly in this match and turned it into a high-quality, highly dramatic contest. Of course it was disappointing that an astonishing victory proved to be just beyond our grasp but we can still take great pride at having ended Scotindians 100% winning record. And if it is to be the last game that most of the departing Asian kids play for the club this season then what a game to go out on. This was as close as Division 5 ever gets to epic.