Hickling push the Seconds all the way for another 20

Hickling Cricket Club’s first eleven were this week’s visitors to Little Bounds to take on an Ellerslie second team who were sitting in 2nd place in Division 2 at the start of weekend. Skipper Eddy George failed to win the coin flip and the boys from Nottinghamshire’s southern boundary decided to have a bat.

Kamran Ul-Haq picked up an early scalp for the green and gold but Matt Wynn and Peter Bhabra began laying solid foundations, neither scoring at an outlandish rate but steadily accumulating what the home side presented by way of scoring opportunities. Wynn surpassed his half-century and the visitors surpassed their team century just one wicket down. At 119 for 1 Hickling were very much in the driving seat. But that was to change.

MT Raza, Taimoor Tansim and Suman Shrestha were all unable to draw Hickling blood but captain George sunk his teeth into the Hickling batting line up, claiming wickets two to six in an eleven over spell which ended with figures of 35 for 6 [Ed: Career Saturday best]. Taimoor, coming back at the death, mopped up the tail, picking up three cheep wickets to help bowl the visitors out for 182.

Tea Highlights: Hot potato fries, chocolate éclairs and a strong cake selection.

With a below par target and depth in batting the Ellerslie changing room was quietly confident in chasing the runs down and claiming another W. Sam Miller (20) helped himself early, putting away some tasty leg side bowling. Alan Lewis fell quickly to an expansive drive and was followed by Sam who played round a straight one (41-2).

Next in were David Perry and Ryan Duggan, both of whom looked good in their own way yet, both got in and got out. Perry (27) got a bit of a snorter, coming off his gloves and landing in gully’s mitts, whilst Duggan (17) opened the face and glided one to first slip who happily obliged. 86 for 4 soon became 99 for 5 after Matt Footitt was somewhat unluckily bowled. For the first time since the middle of their innings Hickling were back in the game.

Maneesh Mishra was ticking away nicely, transferring his form from last week, but wickets would continue to fall. 133 for 5 became for 6 as Suman was next to go. Raza then came in and in two overs was dropped, blasted 19 and then hit it straight up and then Maneesh (35) did the exact same thing. Two more batmen getting in and getting out left Eddy and Taimoor at the crease.

Taimoor, probably not known by opponents for his batting [Ed: or his team mates?], scored 25* off 13 perhaps making a name for himself as a dangerous lower order batter. Taimoor’s knock won the game for the 2nds but when Eddy was dropped with the score on 179-8 it could have been ever such a nervy ending, although it was pretty close at that.

So, Ellerslie’s second team win again, this time by just 2 wickets but in enough time to claim the full 20 points. The 20 will mean that the 2nds remain in second spot in the SNCL’s FEET (etc) Division D for another 7 days before they play Gedling and Sherwood on the 4th.

Simon George