Sunday 04 – 07 – 2021 Glostrup 2 vs Svanholm, Division match (40 overs) @ Solvangsparken.
Highlights:
Khizar J. 45 runs
AJ. 8 overs, 1 Maiden, 4 for 27
Sheraz Safdar, 5 overs, 3 for 24
In absence of our devoted “match reporter” Hammad Alvi, (Alvi brothers were out of town attending a wedding), I will try to give you the insight from yesterday’s game, not though detailed as Hammad’s but bear with me.
Weather Conditions were overcast and humid and the ground somewhat heavy. GCC won the toss and elected to bat first. Svanholm were missing 2 players at the start of the game and had to scrap up a team consistent of 2 players from their 1st eleven.
GCC opened with Abhishek Gupta and Bilal Shah and it was not long before the spinner Ehsan Karimi got Abhishek in the short cover snapped by Saud Munir. Former had claimed a 5’er the day before against our 1st eleven. In came the skipper Fraz and out he went for a Golden Duck, scooping a low chance to point, well held by Karimi. Sammi Khan was in at 4 and did not find easy to put away the ball. He tried to break the shackles but could not clear mid off offering a simple catch. Svanholmers clearly displaying their agility in the field with safe hands, accurate and powerful returns made it difficult for the scoreboard to tick.
At 5 came Ifthekhar bhai and after a few dots he was too trapped in front shuffling across his stumps. GCC 4/34 in 13 overs. At the other end Bilal Shah had been there for almost an hour, trying to survive and not contributing much.
Khizar J. was in at 6 and he took his time to settle in, he was given a life line early on, when he skied one in the covers and their most experienced player Saud Munir, shelled a relatively simple chance. A couple of overs later Bilal found one going through his gate and castled the middle stump, ending a miserable 5 of 39 balls. GCC coincidently is also 5 down for 39.
AJ in at 7, did not look bothered at all by all the fuss and smashed the 2nd delivery he faced for 4, by then Khizar had found his footing and they ran well together and for the first time Svanholmers went quiet. Quick running and some nice blows from Khizar brought some decency to the scorecard before AJ was snapped in the slips by James Moniz, for 12. Sameer was next in and supported Khizar well by keeping his end locked, providing Khizar with strike. Sameer fell for 8 but consumed 31 deliveries and made sure that we would not get bowled out early. The instructions were to play as many overs as possible. Awais came in and picked up things from where Sameer had left, running nicely adding 9 valuable runs. Khizar fell just short of a well-deserved 50 and our tail folded very quickly not adding too much. GCC mustered 94 with the bat and 22 extras made sure that we ended up on a feeble 116 in 34 overs.
After a short break the 2nd innings resumed and optimism was a distant city in Siberia. Sheraz however had some other plans, during the team huddle he had said that if we get 4 wickets under the score of 40, the game is ours. And he made sure that he played his part, by deceiving their opener on the 2nd ball, who offered a simple catch to Khizar who was well placed in short covers. Svanholm is 1 for 0. Awais shared the new ball from other end and bowled a tight over not giving away anything. Sheraz steamed in and got one the nip away taking the outside edge snapped up by the keeper, Svanholm 2 for 3 and GCC sensed an opening. At 4 came in James Moniz AKA Jimbo who looked in a hurry and put Awais and Sheraz to sword, smashing 2 huge sixes (one of each), suddenly the scoreboard had jumped to 35 in 6 overs. Sheraz was given another go after being hammered in his previous and he delivered once again, a beautiful in cutter which knocked off Jimbo’s middle stump, and Sheraz by his quiet demeanor, for once wanted to kill someone. Svanholm 3 for 35 and GCC right back in the game. Svanholmers knew that they just need to stay on the wicket to win this one, and the couple batting did exactly the same thing, not offering any shots, they blocked and rotated taking the score to 59, leaving not much to chase. They did offer 1 chance each, which GCC could not capitalize on, shelling 2 half chances. Frustration and desperation grew. Khizar was introduced in the attack which slowed down the scoring rate as he was precise and cheap but could not get us the needed breakthrough. Sameer was the 4th bowler and he too had a string of dots but his obsession with bowling short did not bring us wicket either. He did create a chance which was lobbed to short leg, where Ifthekhar was not quick (read young) enough to get his fingers underneath the ball.
AJ was brought into the attack in 16th over and he started off really well, in his 2nd over he broke the stubborn partnership getting a wider delivery to be spooned to cover where Fraz snaffled it. 2 balls later he bowled straighter which was cross batted straight up to short cover, Ifthekhar ran in, saying (hat jao, hat jao) go away, go away, while AJ ran in his follow through, AJ however was willing to rugby tackle Ifthekhar, not trusting him at all, AJ managed to snap the catch while Ifthekhar managed to duck, the only harm done was, another Svanholmer back in the hut. SCC 6 for 88. And we started to believe. Saud was in next, demonstrating solid defense but eager to finish off the game he offered the catch, we being too generous did not accept, heck we even offered him another, and another chance by dropping simple, easy catches. At this point shoulders were hanging and nothing to cheer about, AJ was probably the only one believing, Saud charged him out of crease, AJ bowled flatter and quicker, and Saud smacked to it straight back to him. Another C&B AJ and we were right back in it. SCC 7 for 90. One of their player had to leave earlier to attend another game, so we know we only needed a couple more wickets but only had a few runs to play with, Awais was brought back to clean up and did exactly that, bowling a tail ender, and last one was caught short, stealing a single by Iftherkhar with an accurate throw to the keeper. GCC won the game they did everything to lose!