Nomads defeat Hilton youngsters

Nomads took on the youngsters of Hilton with a scratch team fielding the bare 5 bowlers. Captain Rolfe would have to juggle them wisely to see out the overs. Nomads elected to bat but got off to a poor start losing 2 quick wickets. Rana Ghosal believed he had been bowled, mistakenly, and neglected to get back into his crease. Matt Barker mis-hit a drive and skied the ball giving an easy catch. Gardner, under the circumstances, played circumspectly but Bastable pushed the pace in a brief innings but eventually fell to become Ms Harrison’s 3rd victim. Tom Scurlock played some good-looking shots but it was really the entrance of Aneek Mahmood which gave Nomads a glimmer of hope. Playing sensibly , he nevertheless scored rapidly in an innings which included a 6 on the roof of the Pavilion, his speciality, but his eyes lit up seeing a full toss which he missed and was bowled. Dave Rolfe was out too soon giving a simple catch but Luke Turnbull followed in Mahmood's footsteps scoring a quick-fire 28. Daz Cartwright, John Hoddy and Tom Jordan managed, almost, to see out the 40 overs resulting in a total of 153.
It was not a big score but better than anticipated after the early overs.
Hilton got off to a flying start thanks to some slack bowling and fielding and defeat looked on the cards . However Mahmood and Turnbull claimed slightly fortunate wickets both off bottom edges back onto the stumps. Cartwright and Hoddy got wickets and on 60 for 6, the match had swung back into Nomad’s favour. However Cross and G Duhra dug in and some extremely quick running between the wickets allowed them to reach 111. Nelson was an unlucky number for them with 3 wickets falling on that score. Mahmood claimed Cross and Jordan Duhra with a dipping full toss. The tail was cleaned up without too many worries and Nomads turned out as winners by 30 runs.
This was a friendly match played in a good spirit which was a welcome change after some recent matches. The opposition of mainly youngsters can only improve with the experience of this type of match.

[Disclaimer: Any offence caused by this article is unintentional, any praise is well deserved]

Date: 27th June 2021
Start time: 2:00pm
Venue: Hilton
Competition: 40 overs Friendly
Scores: Lichfield Nomads 153 all out, Hilton 123 all out
Result: Lichfield Nomads beat Hilton by 30 runs
Toss: Nomads won the toss and elected to bat.
Scorers: J. Hoddy
Umpires: Various
Report: J. Hoddy
Weather: Dull

1 July 2021