Match Report
A much changed Crusaders travelled to Hayes, hoping to exorcise the memories of a fearful battering last season. Wajih decided to ‘fall on his sword’ and pass responsibilities to Spud for the day and on winning the toss he gave our hosts first knock, safe in the knowledge that the scorer of an unbeaten 209 last year had left the club.
Riyed opened the bowling, down the slope and was soon generating good pace and regularly beating the bat. Eventually Pratt feathered a catch to Spud for the breakthrough, with the Hayes opener not waiting for the Umpire’s decision, which was just as well, as the finger was staying firmly in his pocket. A couple of overs later Riyed repeated the delivery to Hayes number three Robertson, with Spud again pouching the catch from a clear edge. This time the batsman was not as keen to ‘walk’ and left the decision to the umpire, who again kept his ‘dismissal digit’ hidden. It proved a pivotal point in the game, with Robertson adding another seventy to his tally, before finally holing out to Sam Singh at mid-on from the bowling of Razz Sikdar. Harpreet struggled with his length from the bottom end, but picked up two wickets, which is some reward for previous spells where he has bowled better without taking wickets.
Mo Sharif (on debut) and Shakil were first change, with Hayes content to re-build and rely on some fairly inept fielding from Crusaders to compile a total. After Shakil had claimed a wicket with his first ball, Robertson was well supported by Jones (38) and Desai (20) as Hayes moved towards a decent total. The introduction of ‘Golden Arm’ Sam Singh brought the Hayes innings to a close, with one over unused, as he picked up two wickets and a run out, with Hayes setting 196 for victory.
The usual high quality tea was served up by Hayes, with the Chicken and Bacon Sandwiches a particular favourite and then we set about the run-chase.
Unfortunately the chase failed to gain any momentum, from the moment we lost the early wickets of Shakil and Riyed. John Rana and Chand followed quickly after, leaving us at a precarious 25-4 after 14 overs, with good spells from Millard and Day putting Hayes firmly on top. A partnership of 60 between The Rock and Mo Sharif, who went on to score a splendid unbeaten 57, gave some stability to the innings, but the early damage had put us well behind the required run rate and despite late contributions from Sam and IPL Jony, we fell 21 runs short.
