2s, 3s and 4s review from 18^th June 2022.

Chris Borsoi is quickly becoming the darling around here after five 2022 league games at the Nomads.  He came to prominence on 28^th May with a stunning winning ton for Faisal’s Threes at Cuckfield.  He was at it again yesterday at the SCMG this time smashing 61 and the winning last ball boundary for the 2s in an ultra-important game.  Having now scored 233 league runs by mid June it’s a certainty that Navin will be casting an eye over the stats board!  More on this story as James brings you his Ifield 2s round up below.

Our Threes are having a whale of a time in Sussex Div 7 where no less than 4 straight wins have been notched up.  It’s taken the team to proudly sit second where we will be looking to kick on.  As alluded to last week the two openers have been key to success.  Yesterday, Kamran Mirza became the hero and man of the match against Felbridge when going on to score 103 not out in the run chase.  Danyal Asad also had a day to remember with 4 for 21 off six overs.  Faisal neatly rounds it all up below.

The 4s are struggling a bit this term and find themselves in the Division 8 relegation zone.  I see this as a club issue as we do not really want to face the prospect of the dreaded R word came early September.  Let’s get those availability numbers through the roof over the next few weeks so that Stephen doesn’t have to be ‘hunting around’ on a Friday evening.  Its up to all of us!    Yesterday the team went down to Three Bridges 3 away.  Charlie Davies took two wickets as did Danny Poynting but Bridges went on to score 230.  Despite a nice skipper’s inns from Stephen O of 47 it was all too much as we folded 125 all out.   His notes are below.

So, two wins from four and overall, 13 from 28 in 2022.  There is loads to be very positive about around the SCMG including exciting Sussex T20 Cup runs but you feel that we need to get those League winning stats going northwards.  50% is ‘adequate’ but who wants that????    Let’s go Nomads and try to get that winning streak going.  A clean sweep on Saturday please!   Cobo

Kam Goes Big in Third Team Win!  Div 7

Guys huge win today and welldone to everyone.

The energy on the field was outstanding.

We bowled really well and kept the pressure on the oppo right from the start to the finish Imran Mike Burney Danya and Adam Rowland really well bowled today boys.

We chased the target with quite ease with a classy 100 from our MOTM today Gatwick Minibuse Kam. Really well supported by our no 3  and for the support u gave kam at the other end

not forgeting Michael English for quality glove work as always mate.

WELLDONE EVERYONE 🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽

Faisal

Last Ball SCMG Pandemonium as Twos Get up on the Rails. Div 3

Classy Win Against Ifield

A dry, used deck for the visit of the league leaders meant an important toss. Simple plan: Win it, bat and spin it to win it as it gets dusty. Lovely. But we lost it and bowled. So Plan B…

Not our best start to the bowling either, some tired legs and loose radar meant debutant youth Sam Musto’s excellent control was very welcome first change, securing the first breakthrough through persistent good areas and Baalaaj neatly taking a swirling skier. Then we hit the spin continuum and started to claw the scoring rate downwards. Baalaaj (2/43) impressed again getting two poles with his deceptive dip, while Adam tied them right down going for a little over 3 per over from his 9, which included a terror pie last ball that went for 4 and a missed stumping. Muadh’s spell was the standout, varying his pace and trajectory to deceive the batters trying to advance the rate, taking a brilliant 4/20 from 5. Sam returned and bagged a 2nd, nicely scooped by big bro Joe, to end 2/40 from his full 9 overs and Ifield had 231/8.

Light whinge time: We were far too sloppy here. That’s a slightly sub par score, which is good after the start, but we gave away 50(!) extras  (Cobo says 34 wides what’s that all about??? come on twos lets not give anything away out there!) and some other freebies. One to really tighten up.

Batting generally started better. We managed to hover around 5 an over for much of it, but the drip feed of wickets – GCB (10) and Jez (26) falling lbw to similar turning off breaks, Baalaaj (3) apparently overbalancing and McKemey slicing a full popper behind point – saw us poised at 128/4 for an exciting denouement – and boy did it arrive.

Muadh (8) and Chris put on 32, before Muadh dragged his back foot out. Joe Mustard (19) and Chris took us 35 closer, then Adam Ibs (3) helped take it to 211/7, needing 31 off the last few overs with Chris nicely set. Having (correctly – he had to get the strike and it was close) run out Adam, he completed another BBQ of luckless Sam, then hit a couple of boundaries nect over including a massive straight 6 towards the swelling crowd at the pav. We caught our breath and 6 were needed from the last over with two wickets in hand.

Ombaashi got a dot and a good yorker bowled him. Ziggy (1*) got forwards, put bat on ball and ran. Job done. 5 needed from 3. Dot! Gulp. Then they ran hard for 2. 3 needed from the last… the opening seamer (apparently with a Hants contract) attempted a slower ball, but over pitched and the advancing Borsoi smoked it on the full through the vacant extra cover boundary! Queue whoops of joy! Double Nomads win at the SCMG against top of the table rivals and Borsoi (68 red from 61) was the 2nd team star!

James M does the talking

4th Team vs Three Bridges 3rd XI Div 8

It’s an away loss!

Success (of sorts)

I start with a thank you to Bara, Sami and Zabi who answered the teams call to get 11 players on the pitch. Bara covered over 5km in the field and saved countless byes on a pitch that was the most volatile and extreme I think I have ever seen.

So, the successes are that the Captain won the toss (2 on the bounce!), that every person had the opportunity to contribute and we had 11 players. Life might be about opportunity, but unfortunately the league is more concerned with points and we remain firmly at the “wrong” end of the table on that score.

Three Bridges typically play at Maidenbower in Crawley (a recreation facility with not many attractions), but decided to de-camp to the countryside to try and find some better cricketing facilities. West Hoathly is a lovely Sussex village, so the obvious combination on a beautiful warm afternoon for cricket.

On a hunch that an uncovered and lightly prepared wicket might prove “interesting” the Captain inserted the opposition. From early on David Symes, off a couple paces, produced a ball that cleared the batsman and slips by miles and then later one that literally passed through the stumps (they had been set too wide!).

The downside was that this encourage the opener to punish everything that was within his range. Young Charlie Davies impressed with an opening spell in support of Symsey. Luke Owen put in a real shift, bowling, fielding in the deep and exchanging coaching hints with Bara. His reward was 2 wickets, a catch and a run out (the response from Bara we will never know!)

Tate Hector produced flight good enough to deceive the batter (and fortunately not the Captain) so a stumping in the book. Danny took a couple, Zabi spun the ball and Sami got involved with sharp stops in the field and trying to find the unpredictable spots on the wicket. Charlie induced a couple of catches late on in the game and so we took a break facing a chase to 234.

The book will show 41 extras – but honestly the Captain was not that poor as when the ball hit the deck, the subsequent trajectory was quite unpredictable with extremes in all respects. So actually this was probably a par score for the size of pitch.

Our response turned as sharply as the weather. As the wind rose and the temperature disappeared, so did the Nomads wickets. The opening bowler had played at a higher level and was comfortably quicker than “normal” in at this level. At the other end the bowlers seemed to hit the unpredictable spots with great regularity. A run out in the first over and subsequent wickets meant that a run chase was looking unlikely. The Captain and Tate dug in to form some resistance.

Patience was required, not least by the spectators, as the Captain looked to find some precious batting points. But the pace off the ball tactics finally broke the concentration with a personal 47. The bowlers found some valuable runs (huge 6 Danny!) and we closed at 125 all out.

A better pitch and teas await next week at Fulking.

Stephen Oliver Reports.