Scorecard

Madrid 2nd X1 v Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas Sunday on Sat 14 May 2016 at 1.00
Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Won 18 points with a great win to start the league

Match report Alfas met up on Friday evening for the long drive up to Madrid for their first ever visit to the new Madrid ground to open their league campaign for the year.
Arriving at the Hostel at 23:00 after a long drive, the Alfas players wondered what the next day had in store and how would they tackle the unknown of Madrid’s ground. Unknown to all as they drifted off that Friday night, they would be involved in a stunning game of cricket that swung drastically in both teams favour before the game was decided…

Arriving at the ground, driving past the resident horses, Alfas found Madrid hard at work laying out the pitch and took the chance to take a few photos to commemorate the trip before the 1st task of the day – the toss, which was lost….Alfas put in to bat into the unknown and a little sense of warning crept into the team.

That sense of warning was a full blown alert just 7 overs later as due to a terrific opening spell from S. Hossain, Alfas found themselves staring down the barrel of humiliation as they were reduced to 13/3 with Hossain getting the top 3 batsmen with a devastating spell. Evans (2) and Ashraf (3) both nicking behind and J. Perman (4) falling to a superb low, one handed caught and bowled.

As K. Perman took the field at No. 4, the Alfas Brain Trust, as so often happened last year, had a quick meeting and decided to make a change. Seeing as there was no give in the pitch and softly softly batting was getting the team nowhere, Skipper Perman opted to send Hamza in at No. 5 in order to free the bat and try to move things along. Hamza then joined K. Perman as Waqar fell and between Hamza’s swinging style and Perman’s control, they at least halted the quick flurry of wickets that had fallen, some semblance of balance coming back to the visitors.

A change of bowling for Madrid then had the desired effect as Babu got Perman to knick one that barely came above the grass tops and Hossain, somehow, managed to get his hand to the ball and take another 1 handed catch and Perman was on his way for 8, Abdul joining Hamza in the middle.

The partnership did not last too much longer however as Hamza, adjudged to have made contact with one down the leg side was caught behind, 3rd of the match from Stirton and Byrne joined Abdul who between them took the score to 67 before Byrne was the victim of a C&B to Madrid’s captain Perumalsamy.
What happened next was one of the big swings of the match, as Bash joined Abdul at the crease and between them they managed to put on 67 for their partnership, doubling Alfas score together and easing a bit of the pressure, Alfas finally figuring that this was not looking like a high scoring pitch. Between them, they managed 4 6’s but only 2 4’s as the ground was a slow roller.

Madrid were not finished though and the return of opening bowler Awan saw the end of Abdul (29) edging another to Stirton behind the wicket and Skipper Perman (1) being bowled by the same bowler. Bash joined them back on the sidelines in quick succession as he was caught off the bowling of Bancroft for 36, what turned out to be the highest individual score of the day.

However, the crazy innings had one final twist in it’s tail as the last pair of Razza and Roper added a very valuable 20 to the score between them to push Alfas over the 150 mark and give the bowlers something to work with……

Madrid’s chase got off to an interesting start as Abdul and Bash got balls to beat the bat by millimetres, Abdul swinging it away and Bash swinging it in to keep the batsmen on their toes. Stirton popped one up that Waqar could not quite reach and then edged another that J. Perman at Gully was not able to gather. Life in the Madrid pitch.

Shortly however, Stirton’s luck gave out and he popped one up to K. Perman to allow Abdul to make the initial breakthrough. Shama came and went in a very short space of time, Bash getting one through his defence to shatter the stumps.

Awan offered a difficult chance to M. Perman shortly after but after a long sprint and managing to get his hands to it, his susceptible balance stuck and as he went down, so did the chance, difficult as it was. At the other end, Bancroft sent a perfect chance down to 2nd slip, only, there was no second slip in place and he survived for another over or two.

However, the Alfas Brain Trust had decided to rotate the bowlers in short spells and with the introduction of K. Perman, Bancroft was banished by the Family with M. Perman, breaking his run of drops taking a safe, but jittery catch! Sarangapani followed just a few balls later, the man who put down 3 chances in the first innings offering a chance to Byrne which the ‘keeper made no mistake with.

The dangerous Sangupta was in next and Alfas immediately stationed someone straight and long knowing his tendency for the big straight drive. Awan and Sangupta put on a few for the next wicket before Sangupta went for the shot and Skipper Perman, his jitty hands and bendy legs was on hand to take the chance, fall over and bop his head, standard catch for him then! Alfas were feeling that the match was won.

With Alfas leaking wides, Perman decided to bring on Rocketman Roper to bowl something straight for a change and he got his reward quite quickly, Rao picking out Abdul in the deep and Madrid were in dire straits with 6 down and still a long way to go.

However, as he dominated the start of the match, Hossain came in to make a go at stamping his mark over the end of the match. Together with Awan, the two opening bowlers started mounting a strong comeback for Madrid and Alfas started to sweat again. Hossain showing some devastating shots while Awan kept stubbornly sticking in, once he had his gloves on each time he faced that is!!

With the match turning again, Perman decided to change things once again and brought on the slower leg spin of J. Perman. His 1st ball was greeted to a boundary from the dominating Hossain but overall, the over was not so bad that he was given 1 more……
 

With Hossain surviving a strong, strong, caught behind appeal in the intervening over, Perman came in for his second over pumped up. Hossain pummeled the ball high and long but Abdul was in the right place in the deep, however, he decided to move and was just able to get fingertips to the ball as it went to sail over his head. On the rebound, he turned the right way and managed to take a miraculously lucky catch (it has to be said) and Hossain was on his way.

Babu joined Awan, who as the batsmen had crossed, found himself on strike. However, Perman had another beauty in him and Awan, who had lasted 32 Overs saw his stumps fall as the ball spun past his wild swing, 2 wickets to go, 50 runs needed for Madrid and in the space of 3 balls the match had swung again. Perman was not finished though and he finished a truly devastating over with another wicket as Babu was trapped LBW from a fuller ball and it was all over bar the shouting as the last man came in to join the captain.
The shouting came the very next over as Bash, back on, castled Madrid’s captain in the 2nd ball of the over and a truly entertaining and nerve wracking game was over. Alfas delighted that they could drive home with a win on their maiden voyage to Madrid while Madrid had to lick their wounds quickly as they were hosting La Manga the next day.

18 points to Alfas and a game to be remembered by all who played, amazing performances by Hossain and Bash Ali the highlights with 56 runs and 5 wickets between them and 2 stunning 1 handed catches by Hossain. Special mention to Perman’s game changing, and winning, over by taking 3 wickets in his 2nd over.

Good luck to both teams for the rest of the season and the rematch next month should be an interesting one!

Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas Sunday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
31w 1lb 
for 10 wickets
32
155		        
Geoff Evans ct D. Stirton Bowled S. Hossain 2 27 15 13.33
Jack Perman ct and Bowled S. Hossain 4 31 12 33.33
Waqar Ashraf Parveen ct D. Stirton Boweld S. Hossain 3 15 5 60.0
Kieran Perman ct S. Hossain Bowled D. Babu 8 44 21 1 38.10 1
Hamza Kayani ct D. Stirton Bowled D. Babu 16 54 30 53.33
Abdul Wajid ct D. Stirton Bowled S. Awan 29 79 46 1 1 63.04 2
Ian Byrne ct and Bowled M. Perumalsamy 6 12 12 50.0 1
Basharat Ali ct J. Bancroft 36 39 31 1 3 116.13
Mark Perman b S. Awan 1 10 4 25.00 2
Ali Raza Not Out  9 31 20 1 45.00
Kyle Roper ct M. Perumalsamy 9 26 37 24.32

Madrid 2nd X1 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
S. Hossain6.012036.673.33
S. Awan7.021527.502.14
M. Perumalsamy7.5034217.004.34
D. Babu5.0030215.006.00
J. Bancroft8.0223123.002.88
R. Sangupta3.002400.008.00
A. Sarangapani3.001000.003.33

Madrid 2nd X1 Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 25w 4lb 
for 10 wickets
32
103 (31.2 overs)		     
S. Awan b J. Perman 30
D. Stirton ct K. Perman Bowled Abdul 1
J. Sharna b Bash Ali 1
J. Bancroft ct M. Perman Bowled K. Perman 3
A. Sarangapani ct I. Byrne Bowled Hamza 0
R. Sengupta ct M. Perman Bowled W. Ashraf 9
R. Rao ct Abdul Bowled K. Roper 3
S. Hossain ct Abdul Bowled J. Perman 21
M. Perumalsamy b Bash Ali 0
D. Babu lbw J. Perman 0
Ashwin Not Out  0

Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas Sunday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Abdul Wajid5.00717.001.40
Basharat Ali5.211527.502.81
Hamza Kayani6.0016116.002.67
Kieran Perman4.0014114.003.50
Kyle Roper5.0020120.004.00
Waqar Ashraf Parveen4.0018118.004.50
Jack Perman2.00732.333.50