Sunday XI v Nomads 17th July 2016

M & B were beaten by 20 runs on a hot sunny day at Bray. With Armstrong losing the toss M & B were condemned to a couple of hours of hard labour in the sun. M & B made a good start though with Liversidge run out for 2 having been called through by his partner for a quick single. Unfortunately for the batter Jai Chopra was quicker and got the ball back to Blair King, who whipped the bails off. Number 3 bat and captain Tom Brockton was done by a beauty from Joe Blackett, which seamed back and hit the top of middle. Yusuf Qureshi whipped out the no 4 with a short of a length delivery which the batsman dragged on. Thereafter the Nomads consolidated with a steady partnership between opener Ormiston and Lane. Pace off the ball was again the key as Faisal Aziz and Chris Butler were able to control proceedings. Butler had Ormiston caught just before drinks and Aziz had Smith well caught by Gunbarul shortly after. The spinners both bowled out their allocation, Aziz the star with figures of 8/2/25/1 with Butler not far behind with 8/0/30/2. With wickets in hand Nomads were able to accelerate in the closing overs with pace on the ball probably the key. Lane went through for a valuable 50 before he was run out the next ball. In the end Nomad reached 206 for 8 off their allocation as Armstrong and Blackett went round the park at the death. Although Armstrong would have liked to have restricted them below 200 he would have taken 206 at the start in hot conditions. The score seemed 25-30 under par at the time.

Nomads skipper used the M & B template of pace off the ball from the start opening with slow medium pace from Showl and leg spin from Royals. Although no breakthroughs were made the scoring rate was kept in check as openers George Parsons and Blair King struggled with the lack of pace, bar one over where King hit three boundaries. After ten overs the score was 38 for 0 and after 15, 45 for 1, as King was bowled for 23 n the 15th over. Sure the bowlers were accurate but the openers did not rotate the strike enough with very few quick singles attempted. Thereafter the rate was immediately a run a ball. Parsons was next to depart for 24 with the score on 50 in the 17th over, totally bamboozled with the flight of Smith and bowled, otherwise he would have been stumped. The wicket brought Yusuf Qureshi to the wicket, fresh off scoring 40 the day before. Qureshi and Tom Wilding formed M & B 's highest partnership, adding 78 in 14 overs, keeping M & B in the hunt. Qureshi, who was the more fluent departed in the 31st over for 37, which included four boundaries. Leaving Wilding as M & B's main hope. He was aided by Gunbarul in a 5th wicket stand of 37 and 27 were required off the last two overs. Wilding was bowled 3rd ball of the penultimate over for 67, which contained 6 4's and his innings spanned 25 overs. With the incoming batsmen in a hopeless position M &B subsided to 186 all out, losing their last six wickets for 4 runs. Bannerjee helped himself to three wickets in the final over. Skipper Armstrong was disappointed with the chase but hopefully the batsmen will learn from the game.