The balance of the 2nd XI was disturbed on the Saturday morning with the news that the 1st XI had another player drop out. Earlier in the week we knew Nigel was to play for the 1st but on the morning we lost our other main bowler in Sooty. Not a good start but perhaps one of the younger bowlers could use this as an opportunity to step up.
I am getting sick of tell you but you should know by now that on helpful bowling conditions we lost the toss again and they asked us to bat. I thought things had turned around because at one stage we were 90-1 and looking set for 200 plus. Qasim Shah made an effective 34 but there after wickets fell steadily yet again. We finished on 155-9 from 50 overs. Normally that may have been enough with the likes of Sooty and Nigel in the side but we knew we had a real challenge to bowl them out.
Humais opened the bowling and took three quick wickets to leave them on 74-4 at this stage the game was in balance and it could have gone either way. However, their captain came in at No4 and made a solid 69no to take his side home with just 6 wickets down. They were not the best side we have played and it was a real opportunity missed for us to be closer to the league leaders.
Scorecard: Moseley Ashfield
S Shams Ct & B Stacey 54
Q Shah Ct Stacey 34
T Mahmood Ct Stacey 7
O Shah Ct Pitt 0
C Sheeham Ct Stacey 1
H Butt Ct Stacey 8
K Qamar run out 16
B Chana Bowled Stacey 16
A Ashraf LBW Stacey 0
R Hosein not out 1
C Bourne DID NOT BAT
Sub total 137
Extras 18
TOTAL 155 – 9
Scorecard: Bronze
J Patel Bowled Butt 3
F O’Rourke Ct Butt 19
A Madhouse C & B Butt 4
S Baker NOT OUT 69
A Ul-Haq Bowled Shah 11
H Patel LBW Bourne 21
A Pitt LBW Bourne 2
J Heaton NOT OUT 1
Sub total 130
Extras 26
TOTAL 156-6
Bourne 10.4-1-37-2
H Butt 13-1-49-3
Hosein 3-0-12-0
Q Shah 3-0-9-1
O Shah 8-0-26-0
Chana 4-0-13-0
