MBCC Sunday XI v Regals 24th April 2016

M & B won their first game of the season courtesy of a 74 run victory over new opponents, Regals on a bitterly cold Sunday. Upon losing the toss M & B were asked to bat, skipper Armstrong would have bowled if he had the opportunity due to the weak batting order. M& B opened their Sunday campaign with regular opener Brian Dixon and Thomas Noakes, making his first Sunday appearance since 2014. Dixon was hampered as he broke his bat in the indoor netsand consequently had to use GT's bat. This didn't seem to hamper Dixon as he smashed the fifth ball he faced for 6 over mid on, to the bemusement of the opening bowler. Dixon was to continue in this aggressive mood throughout his cameo innings. Noakes on the other hand struggled, albeit Indy bowled a taxing around the wicket line to the left hander which caused considerable uncertainty. Noakes was also hampered by a loose box, which seems to be a longstanding problem! Dixon carried on his merry way, being very fluent on the drive and again smashed Dharam for 6 into the net over mid on to bring up the M & B 50 in the 8th over. Alas another pitched up ball next ball accounted for Dixon as he drove over the full ball, appearing to york himself. Another start for Dixon but no big daddy return, nonetheless a pleasing 34 laid the foundations for M & B. Yusuf Qureshi walked to the crease to face his first ball sine his big hundred on 13th September! Surprisingly Qureshi generally found the middle of the bat and batted surprisingly responsibly as he began to pierce the field with his pleasing drives. Noakes on the other hand plodded along scratching runs where he could, occasionally finding the middle of the bat to good effect - one pleasing lofted drive back over the bowler's head for 4 being notable. Noakes added 63 for the second wicket before he perished stumped for 38 in 19 overs. Hopefully he should benefit from the innings. His dismissal led to the arrival at the wicket of the Sunday big gun, Gunbarul. As always he started slowly, reaching for those pushed drives before branching out to the more lofted drive and pulls to leg. Gunbarul in tandem with Qureshi moved the total to 200 with a partnership of 87 in 11 overs. Qureshi was finally dismissed for a well compiled 57, which included 5 4's and a 6. Gunbarul went on his merry way in the end smashing 7 4's and 3 6's in his 76, he also carried on with his Sunday luck from last season being dropped about 3 or 4 times, once in consecutive balls by the same deep fielder. It was mainly Gunbarul's aggression in the final 10 overs which kept the scoreboard ticking, although Callum Phillips struck some well timed leg side boundaries in his 14. The Regals pulled it back in the final ten overs with spinner Raman and medium pacer bowling well to finish with 4 and 2 wickets respectively. The Regals would have been disappointed with their fielding though as countless catches were put down, and a score nearer 200 would have been achieved instead of M & B's final total of 252 in 40 overs.

Regals set about their target with gusto as they posted 25 in the first free overs, courtesy of some fine shots aided by some wayward bowling. Despite generally bowling too short tin man, Atif Amin, castled opener Vinod, as he played across the line and then unbelievably in the next over, Alexander le Clerq took a slip catch off one of the rare good balls delivered by Callum Phillips. A well pitched up away swinger which Le Clerq caught Aussie style in front of his face, to everyone's disbelief! Phillips will no doubt be back in the groove shortly once he has a few more overs under his belt. He was replaced at the Road End by skipper Matt Armstrong. He to was a bit short and wide in his first over as he was driven and cut through the off side for 11 in his first over, albeit there after he slowed down the run rate. Amin got the dangerous Raman lbw for 20 in the final over of his spell to finish with figures of 2 -20 in 5 overs. Armstrong got the crucial wicket of opposing skipper Mohawk for 30 in the next over, as he got a leading edge as he tried to turn a delivery to leg and Armstrong made good ground to take a good catch at full stretch. Armstrong's and Le Clerq's catches brought an end to M & B's catching and fielding as the rest of the show was particularly poor. Admittedly it was cold, overcast and with the occasional drizzle but the fielding was atrocious. Hopefully no colts were watching the fielding performance of Head of Colts Thomas Allen! Although only 4 wickets were down and 68 runs were on the board after only 11 overs, skipper Armstrong felt M & B had the game under control. So it proved as senior Sunday spinner Chris, racoon, Butler followed on from Armstrong's spell of 7 overs 1 for 28, with another controlled spell of bowling, to match his previous day's efforts. Seeing the shoddy fielding on show Butler took fielder assistance out of the equation by castling two and gaining two lbw verdicts as he just missed out on a Sunday five for. Despite the efforts of lower order batter Indy, who finished on 45 no, M& B rapped up proceedings in the 32nd over as Qureshi castled the number 11. Just a s well as if the match went to 40 overs it would have been well after 8pm ! Butler finished with the excellent figures of 6 overs 4 for 16.