Midi win one, lose one, in triangular T20 and fail to reach final
Mid CC’s triangular T20 tussle with the Wolves and Bears from Toulouse CC in the ACCSO Southern pool ended in a three-way tie on Sunday, 12 May, with each team winning and losing one match.
But based on runs per over, the Wolves mauled their opponents and made it through to the Blevins Franks T20 finals on 2 June and will play Damazan CC from the Northern Pool.
After the Wolves had beaten the Bears in the Toulouse derby, Midi took the field against the Bears. Midi’s captain George won the toss and decided to bat. Clean striking from Joris Verdaasdonk (34), supported by Ben Morgan (17) and Kashifa Safi (13), saw Midi race to 61 for one after just 6 overs.
However, Midi’s middle order found it difficult to come to terms with the variations in line and length sent down by the Bears’ bowlers, and the middle third of the innings produced just 38 runs for the loss of four wickets. Mark Hayden’s dismissal for a painfully-compiled six allowed the tail to wag in the final overs, with a quick-fire 14 not out from Waseem Akhtar helping Midi to post a reasonably competitive total of 146 from their 20 overs.
Midi’s quick bowlers then made good use of the skiddy plastic pitch at Toulouse to reduce the Bears to 37 for three after 8 overs. The Bears’ batsmen found Midi’s medium pacers more to their liking, however, with fully one-quarter of the required runs coming off just two overs from Naeem Abbas and Verdaasdonk.
The Bears’ Rama (51), supported by Michael (42 not out ) brought the score to 140 before Rama was run out in the 19th over with the Bears just six short of their target. Possibly a little belatedly, Midi brought the field in to cut off easy singles, but Michael responded by striking two boundaries off the final over to give the Bears victory with three balls to spare.
Midi’s narrow defeat left the team a little deflated. The Wolves took advantage of this, opting to bat first in the day’s third and final match, and they put a 100 runs on the board inside the first 10 overs, for the loss of just one wicket.
Helped notably by Waseem’s tidy spell of one for 26 from his four overs, Midi managed to stem the flow of runs somewhat in the second half of the Wolves’ innings, to restrict them to a nonetheless challenging total of 173 for two. Wolves opening batsman Peter Jarvis added an unbeaten 82, building on his undefeated score of 95 in the earlier match against the Bears.
Midi started their innings briskly, with Morgan (28) at the top of the order again providing a solid foundation. While keeping up with the required run rate of almost nine an over proved not to be a problem, the loss of two wickets through run outs left Midi on 66 for four after eight overs, raising the prospect that they might be bowled out inside their allotted 20 overs.
However, a magnificent innings of 80 from Ahmad Sher, including eight sixes and five fours, turned the innings around. When he was dismissed with the total on 154, Midi needed just 21 runs from the final four overs. As the evening shadows stretched across the pitch, captain Dom George nudged and French cut his way to 17 not out, before Louis Parry achieved a career first by striking the winning run from the second ball of the final over.
Mark Hayden ... See MoreSee Less
Midi CC win again for unbeaten start to the league season
Midi CC’s batting star Shakeel Akram once again guided his team to a second successive victory, his 90 not out providing the foundation for a convincing seven wicket win over the TCC Wolves on Sunday.
Midi, who beat Catus CC in the opening match of their 2019 league campaign, won the toss at their wind-blown Pouzolles ground and captain Dom George sent the Toulouse side in to bat.
A three-wicket haul from Ahmad Sher, another two from Shakeel and two stunning runouts by Waseem Akhtar, limited the visitors to a moderate 179 runs all out from 35 overs.
The home side lost Warren Dauncey (4) and Naeem Abbas (4) cheaply but Shakeel, coming in at number three, shored up the innings, and unlike his rampaging century against Catus the previous weekend, he studiously compiled runs at the start as he sized up the bowling.
With able support from Sher Ahmad (28 not out) and Abdul Basu Adnan (20), Shakeel hit 12 fours and four sixes to ensure that Midi would start their campaign in the Blevins Franks South West Regional League with two wins out of two.
With TCC Wolves batting first, opening strike bowler Sher got Midi off to a great start by removing TCC Wolves’ opening bat Peter Jarvis with a vicious swinging first ball then followed it up in his second over with the wicket of Edrees Zahiry to reduce the visitors to 8 for two wickets.
The Wolves then started piling on the runs and looked capable of setting Midi a competitive 200-plus target but the veteran campaigner George then removed Tanjil Haque LBW on 32, Shakeel had Sriram Balasubramaniam leg before on 21, then Waseem executed an incredible underarm direct hit from fine leg to run out top scorer Sharif Uddin on 32. With slow bowler Warren Dauncey removing Uchchhal Bandyoppadhay on 3 for what can only be described as a donkey drop, Wolves were struggling at 129 for six.
Sher and Shakeel picked up another wicket apiece, Waseem then removed young George Jarvis for a patient 21 and finally wrapped up the innings with a brilliant run out from his own bowling. Sher ended with a creditable three for 26 while Shakeel followed up his six-wicket haul against Catus, with two for 23.
George used eight of bowlers to give as many of the team as possible a chance to participate but it was the strike bowlers – Sher and Shakeel – who did the damage.
Midi’s run chase started bizarrely with opening bowler Raffi Seyal conceding 12 runs with a mixture of wides, a no ball and loose deliveries.
Raffi finally pulled his bowling together in his third over to remove Naeem Abbas for four after Dauncey had been caught also for four off the bowling of Sam.
Shakeel then came in and with support at the other end from Adnan and Sher the score moved towards the winning target, the Wolves not helping their cause by having three bowlers removed from play for bowling over shoulder height after receiving a warning from the umpire. ... See MoreSee Less
