Graveyard Comes Alive With Tense Win

Match winner Sooty fielding at backward-45 on the one ! (Also Pictured Tommy behind the sticks, Andy Crossley at Point and CB at slip)

Everyone who played or watched the game against Bablake will tell you that it will go down as the game of the season. The graveyard came alive on Saturday 9th June 2007 with a tense finish that saw Moseley Ashfield win by 3 runs! On a warm day we won the toss we decided to bat first. At one point it appeared to have been the wrong decision because within the 1st 20 overs we were 77-7 with some of us getting overconfident and playing shots more suited to a 20-20 game. However, Ray (Iltaf Rehman) batting at number 8 to turn things around with a responsible 65no. It gave us a competitive score of 182-10 in 43 overs. The opposition started well and were 99-2 from 30overs. The breakthrough came when Ray had their opener ct and bowled in the 31st over and from this point on wickets fell at regular intervals. Abu chipped in with 3-28 and it left them needing 34 with 4 wickets in hand from 17 overs. At this point, Sooty who had been pumped up all day took over. He took their 7th wicket with a ct and bowled and Ashfield could smell an unlikely victory. This now left them needing 18 from 8 overs with 3 wickets in hand. Ray took wicket number 8 and Sooty removed their 9th man. It was now down to 3 runs from 6 overs. Up stepped psycho (Martin Sutton) Sooty (Almost Stuart Pearce style when he scored THAT penalty for England). Sooty bowling at their number 7, who thought he could finish it in one hit, drove it firmly back only to see this ‘spring chicken’ pull it out of thin air. He took the catch and dropped to his knees. In taking the final wicket the celebrations from the lads were perhaps more notorious with a game of football than cricket as Sooty was lost with 10 men pilling on top of him. Bet you’ve never had that before Sooty! Or may be he has?

Scorecard: Moseley Ashfield
A.Pervaiz Ct Eyles 9
T Bartlett Ct Rahman 9
S Shams Ct Eyles 1
T Smith Bowled Eyles 18
A Crossley Bowled Rahman 10
K Zaidi LBW Rahman 4
T Mahmood Bowled Keith 9
I Rehman NOT OUT 65
N Udoh LBW Rubery 19
M Sutton Ct Rubery 8
C Bourne Bowled Rubery 13
Sub total 165
Extras 17
TOTAL 182

Scorecard: Babelake
Stidworth Ct + Bowled Rehman 21
Morris Run Out (Zaidi) 20
Lidster LBW Parvaiz 17
Leatherland Ct Crossley Pervaiz 9
Nanda LBW Sutton 21
Clarke Ct Sutton Pervaiz 8
Bevis Ct + Bowled Sutton 20
Eyles Ct + Bowled Sutton 0
Rahman Ct Bartlett Sutton 4
Keith Bowled Rehman 0
Rubery Run Out 6
Sub total 121
Extras 58
TOTAL 179
N Udoh 11-3-26-0
M Sutton 11.3-3-15-4
K Zaidi 3-0-11-0
I Rehman 10-2-38-2
C Bourne 5-1-25-0
A Pervaiz 11-0-28-3