Scorecard

La Manga C.C v Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas Sunday on Sun 19 Jun 2016 at 1pm
Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Won Alfas bowlers contain La Manga danger men

Match report Alfas made the trip down to early pacesetters La Manga for a crunch match that both teams were looking to win to increase the pressure on the other teams in the group. First blood was drawn by Alfas as they won the toss and invited La Manga to set a total, a task that could by no means be hard for them with the form of some of their big guns in the early part of the season.

Williams and Simpkins started off proceedings and went at a healthy clip of 5 an over off the 1st 4 overs of the game. However, in the 5th over, we saw just how strange and wonderful this game can be….

Abdul, having already found some life and movement in the pitch and air, produced a frankly, stunning ball than deceived Simkins all ends up and left the batsman just staring in awe at his stumps after the ball had destroyed them. Starting on leg and going further, the ball took some late swing, bounced and seemed to go all around Simkins into the sticks. Nobody on the pitch could believe what they had seen and Simkins’ muttering of “unbelievable” could be heard as he took the long walk back to the pavilion. From that amazing delievery, Abdul followed it up with a rank long hop that Oliphant could only hook into Evans’ hands, at least on the 2nd attempt as the ball was hit with such ferocity, Evans, at Square Leg, could only parry it up but held on as the ball came back down, 2 in 2 balls. The field moved in, C. Hunt was in at 4 and he went to defend the next ball but could only pop it up to mid on where captain Perman took the catch, although his reaction showed he did not want to! A hat trick for Abdul and Alfas were on a high, 22/3 off 5.

Vine came in and helped steady matters with Williams. Together they put on 37, even with Vine offering 2 difficult chances in between before the Skipper brought on the main spinner. J. Perman started with a few wayward balls but after words between him and the ‘keeper brought out his fire, he lashed down a hard, low, straight ball that beat Vine’s bat and Alfas had one more danger man, Vine clean bowled for 7 and La Manga 59/4.

That soon became 65/5 as Skipper Hunt was trapped LBW just 2 overs later from the same bowler. His initial look of bewilderment turned to acceptance later in the game as he realised where he ended was not where the ball hit and a very good decision was made in Alfas favour, Perman again making waves with the ball in his hand.

Harbour came in and treated everybody in the ground to a perfect, textbook display of……swimming! Hitting a ball to mid on, he set off and was sent back loudly by Williams. However, Harbour did not hear and got most of the way down before he realised the single was not on. He went to turn and down he went, he got up and down he went, he swam, crawled, despaired, got up and went down again! Finally, using all his height and the full length of the bat, he managed to get his ground as Alfas missed the chance for the Run Out, 7 times as the ball went to the wrong end! However, Harbour’s innings did not get the chance to amuse much more as his 10 run partnership with Williams ended as another LBW was given, Ashraf getting one straight onto Harbour’s toe and Vince giving it! 75/6 off 22.

Warwick came in to join Williams but the introduction of Marriner did for the dogged opener. Stretching for one, he only managed to edge behind to Byrne and La Manga were 79/7, Williams' innings ending on 32.

Warwick did not enjoy his dismissal, hawkeye showing he was quite a bit down the wicket but Perman had another and La Manga were 91/8 but that’s where the wickets stopped for Alfas who were unable to finish off the tail. Grimble and James with a valuable partnership at the end to bring the total to 129 off 40 over, wides making up 31 of the score in another wayward day for the bowlers from Alfas.

Alfas mounted their response after tea in a very carefully controlled fashion. The total may not look much on paper but out in the middle it can be a different story altogether. Evans and Brown looking to score when they could and defend the, multiple, danger balls from the La Manga openers of Vine and Williams, R.

10 overs negotiated without loss saw the score on 35/0. However, the wickets column was not to be held back for long. After a nice solid start, the Cricket Gods had another curve ball in the game. Brown was 1st to fall as he charged 1st change bowler James so fiercely that he gave C. Hunt plenty of time to gather the ball and throw down the stumps to get the breakthrough. As they say, 1 brings 2 and as we saw in the 1st innings, it was true again.

J. Perman strode out in the unaccustomed position of No. 3 and did not take to it at all, 1st ball was launced high but not that far and was easily held by the “swimmer” Harbour for a Golden Duck and Alfas were 48/2.

However, bad news often comes in 3’s and for Evans, that saying rang true. With Abdul at the other end, Evans clipped one to covers and set off, Abdul did not…Evans gone for 8 and Alfas down to 55/3.

However, cometh the hour, cometh the cripple in this instance… Harvey, Alfas’ “Mr. Fitness”, injured again in the field, hobbled out to join Abdul to try and get the chase back on track. Between them, they managed to put on 63 for the next wicket, Harvey hobbling for singles and swatting the ball for boundaries when on strike taking the majority of the runs in the partnership.

Finally, in the 29th Over, Hobbling Harvey went for one big hit too many and skied the ball deep to the waiting, ready and in the end, bloody hands of Harbour who kept calm and took a very good catch in the deep despite his finger exploding in blood at the moment of catching! 118/4 off 29, plenty of overs and very little runs to get, Alfas were home.

However, they made damn hard work of it in the end! Ashraf went out to become the 4th Golden Duck of the match when edging Growling Mad Grimble to Hunt behind the sticks. 122/5. Byrne left the scorer’s table but felt worried about his replacements there so was back 1 run later, leaving a straight one to get clean bowled, 124/6. In the end, the unfamiliar face of a travelling Marriner and Abdul were left to see the match out, finally making the “daunting” total of 130 to see out the match and claim 19 points under the watchful eye of Mr. John Dye, La Manga getting 5 and Alfas moving, for the next week at least, to the top of the table.

A great, enjoyable game of cricket rounded off with a few drinks and chat in
the La Mangan sun afterwards before Alfas made the trip home to prepare for the rematch in just 3 weeks.

La Manga C.C Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
31w 1b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
33
129 (40.0 overs)		     
D. Williams ct  I. Byrne Bowled B. Marriner 32
S. Simkins b  Abdul Wajid 5
G. Oliphant ct  G. Evans Bowled A. Wajid 0
C. Hunt ct  M. Perman Bowled A. Wajid 0
T. Vine b  J. Perman 7
I. Hunt lbw  J. Perman 2
M. Harbour lbw  W. Ashraf 1
P. Grimble Not Out  24
D. Warwick lbw  J. Perman 3
H. James Not Out  14
R. Williams  

Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas Sunday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Abdul Wajid8.002939.673.63
Tyler Hogan Brown6.002100.003.50
Waqar Ashraf Parveen6.0019119.003.17
Jack Perman8.002036.672.50
Ben Marriner8.0130130.003.75
Kyle Roper4.01700.001.75

Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas Sunday Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 15w 3lb 
for 6 wickets
20
132		        
Tyler Hogan Brown st  C. Hunt Bowler H. James 33 7
Geoff Evans run out  S. Simkins / C. Hunt 8 1 1
Jack Perman ct  M. Harbour Bowler H. James 0
Abdul Wajid Not Out  27 4
Nick Harvey ct  M. Harbour Bowler D. Warwick 42 5 1
Ian Byrne b  D. Warwick 1 1
Waqar Ashraf Parveen ct  C. Hunt Bowler P. Grimble 0
Ben Marriner Not Out  1
Mark Perman   1
Kevin Laundon  
Kyle Roper  

La Manga C.C Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
T. Vine8.012100.002.63
R. Williams5.021900.003.80
H. James6.0122211.003.67
I. Hunt4.002000.005.00
S. Simkins3.002500.008.33
D. Warwick4.001326.503.25
P. Grimble1.10919.007.71