Tasnim on fire in the rain for the Seconds

The Ells wade through Underwood to capture a W!

As the teams arrived at the ground just south of Mansfield it became obvious how the home side had suffered so many games to the weather in the 2014 campaign. Underwood’s skipper advised skipper Eddy George to run everything, whether that’s between the wickets or in the field, as the ball ‘would’ stop short of the boundary rope. Amongst the small talk Eddy won the toss and put the Northerners into bat.

The skipper and Kamran Ul-Haq opened up for the Ells and after a slow start the pair took a wicket a piece in two balls (27-2). After that initial ‘bang bang’ of dismissals the away side had an opening and Taimoor Tasnim, replacing Eddy, got stuck into the home team’s batting line-up. Taimoor then went ‘bang bang’ wickets himself to take Underwood 4 down for 41 and bogged down at below 2 an over.

Big Matt Thorley was the old Underwood batsman to provide any real resistance, bludgeoning the ball to the boundary on his way to the home side’s top score of 31. Taimoor continued to pick up wickets on his way to figures of 5 for 34 whilst youngster Kamran came back at the end of the innings and nipped out numbers 10 and 11 to finish with 3 for 19. Underwood bowled out for 107 on a rare day where Ells legend Phil Lafbery did not pick up a wicket.

Tea highlight: dunking my penguin bar in a strong brew.

In response, Sam Miller and Rich Whittle came and went early, both chipping to mid-off, as did Ryan Duggan who was run out off a fine piece of fielding, hitting the stumps from the depths of the outfield. Maneesh Mishra and David Perry shored up the team’s footing as they began to build a solid partnership. Nonetheless, a short rain break must have affected David who was soon bowled and Nick Hobbs who again chipped one to mid-off shortly joined him in the pavilion.

Next in was Simon George, who joined Maneesh at 68 for 5. Having wadding around for a little a while Maneesh latched on to some loose bowling and in the space of 8 overs took the Ells from 68 for 5 to 102 for 5. Simon then fell to the dismissal of the day; the plop to mid-off before Maneesh could guide the 2s home on 42 not out and a 4-wicket victory.

The win gave the Ells 19 points and moved them up to the dizzy heights of second in the SNCL FEET (etc) Division D!

Written by Simon George
@SGeorge87

Also from Naser Amin:

The second’s moved nicely into second place in Division D with a 4 wicket win which turned out fairly comfortable in the end. A wet and damp Underwood provided the setting for this encounter but there were no rays of sunshine for the home side as they went out to bat. T.Tasnim with a lightning spell of 5-34, supported well by K.Ul-Haq 3-19 and some excellent ground fielding by Ellerslie ensured Underwood were bowled out for a very modest 107.

Despite an early wobble under some good tight bowling, a composed and fluent 42 from M.Mishra, showing class on both sides of the wickets handed the second’s their 4th victory of the season.

Next up for E.George’s team is Hickling CC at Little bounds on Saturday.