London Maccabi Vale Cricket Club

Scorecard

North London Muslims v London Maccabi Vale Cricket Club 1st XI on Sun 20 May 2012 at 13.30
London Maccabi Vale Cricket Club Won by 3 wickets

Match report A great win for an understrength LMVCC 1XI

Taking to the pitch on a cold miserable afternoon with 10 men due to Landers forgetting what week the match was on. The larger (and not just in height anymore) Cohen (8-1-46-2) took first over and after a half an hour strop came sprinting up the hill against the wind to immediately cause the opening leftie a few problems, with Jelly (7-0-26-0) playing in one of his last games for the club before shipping off to Israel taking the other end. Although neither got the breakthrough, both bowled at a decent pace and gave very little lose away. Sensing a change was needed Captain Useless (8-1-26-3) brought himself on and straight away caused the NLM batsmen to ask a few more questions before clean bowling the opener and having the number 3 dropped first ball, soon after Milhouse had the other opener caught at slip by Adam (Are you Caro in disguise) Brand on the juggle.

The NLM 3 & 4 batted sensibly and dispatched the occasional bad ball to the boundaries, the slimmer Cohen (8-0-30-0) and Andy Landesberg (5-0-28-0) both bowled well without taking any wickets with Simeon adding his ever unique brand of self criticism and Landers keeping the batters interested. The breakthrough finally came courtesy of a first 'proper' 1sts wicket for Josh Frey (4-19-1) who bowled very well, even more so considering that he was yet to bowl outside this season due to the lovely weather we have experienced.

Lederman, Cohen and Saul came on and bowled well at the death restricting NLM to 204 for 6 on what was a very good wicket with nothing much in it for the bowlers. Special mention to Dan's 2 wickets, showing everyone that half volleys and slower half trackers really are the way forward when bowling at the death. Anyways at tea LMV were happy with the score although thought after the good start it was perhaps 25 more than should have been given away (Cohen wanted to make a match of it we reckon).

Haff (35) and Jezz 'I'm a proper village jewish cricketer' Harris opened up and thanks to some wayward bowling got off to a flying start putting on 40 in the first 9 overs with 22 of them being off the bat. On came NLM's skipper who the week before had taken a 5fer again MAL and cleaned them up, thankfully he was not on form and apart from making a sport out of seeing how many time he could pin Jezz never really looked like he had any rhythm going. With his second over going for 16 the score was suddenly 56 off 10 and the run rate looking a lot better. Both Jezz and Haff carried on batting sensibly and accumulated runs resulting in being on 95 without loss at the halfway stage. Knowing that 110 off 20 was very doable as long as we didn't lose wickets we were feeling quietly confident at this point.

Unfortunately Mr Harris wasn't and due to still being in recovery from keeping 8 days earlier finally was out playing a tired shot around a straight ball for a very well played 41, leaving us on 99-1 off of 23.

Brand joined Haff at the crease and between them picked up the scoring pace with Brands first scoring shot a lovely straight drive for 6, unfortunately he then picked out the fielder who just seemed to stick a hand up and somehow catch the thing off of a long hop for a very quick (and probably the easiest looking 17 ever). So at 130-2 off 28 things were starting to get a bit tense, especially as Haff for a well played 35 and Rothband went within 3 overs of each other bringing Dan and Neil to the crease with 68 needed off the last 10. Lederman thumped his first ball through mid off for four and Cohen trying a new concept just put bat to ball and rotated the strike. Together they quickly put on 38 before Cohen played all around a straight one and managed to get bowled leg stump off both pads for an important 13 including a cracking over drive for four. leaving 29 needed off the final 4 overs. In came the younger Cohen who looks like he thankfully hasn't learnt his technique off of his brother, he rotated the strike well whilst at the other end Neil had decided to forget how to play the ball into the offside, thankfully the bowler strayed too straight and the ball was hit over the boundary for a very welcome 6, leaving 15 needed off the last 2, 15 then became 7 off one thanks to a lovely shot to square for for by Sim.

Squeaky bum time with Sim facing the first ball of the final over and a new bowler that hadn't previously bowled in the match. The first ball was a dot, 7 off 5, Sim then hit a nice drive but due to having the turning circle of the titanic got run out coming back for the second. 6 off 4. Saul with the instruction to get a single no matter what then forgot that hitting the ball was needed and got bowled trying to cut the ball off of off. 6 off 3, in comes Avi who first ball drills it to cover and a quick single is taken. 5 off 2, Neil batting on about off stump took the ball and with what could probably be described and a mixture of a lot of luck, a cool head and seeing the ball rather large having been in for 10 overs went down on one knee and swatted the ball over the square leg boundary for 6, or was it!! With both the umpire and the fielder calling a 6 and then the fielder, realising that meant his team lost then changing his mind. Neil didn't care, finishing on a well played (and timed) 37* and was in the changing room, unpadded and a very happy skipper before the conversations about whether it was a 6 or not had finished.

So Vale 1stXI are off the mark this season, this was a very good team effort from a depleted team fielding only 6 regulars against a very good NLM team, if we can keep that kind of team spirit and level of performance the rest of the reason there is no reason we can't be at the right end of the table come September. Special mention to Jezz Harris playing his first 1sts game in a long time, who batted with a level head even when he was getting pelted by probably the fastest bowler in the league and Josh Frey who looks like he will be a very good prospect if he carries on bowling like that.

Your 1st XI skipper, Milhouse!

North London Muslims Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 11w 2b 5lb 
for 5 wickets
20
204 (40.0 overs)		     
  ct  Lederman 23
  b  Lederman 15
  Not Out  63
  ct  Frey 53
  b  Lederman 2
  b  Cohen 3
  ct  Cohen 18
  Not Out  3
   
   
   

London Maccabi Vale Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Dan Cohen8.0046223.005.75
Saul Weitzman7.003200.004.57
Neil Lederman8.002839.333.50
Simeon Cohen8.003000.003.75
Andy Landesberg5.002800.005.60
Josh Frey4.0019119.004.75

London Maccabi Vale Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 37w 2b 5lb 
for 7 wickets
48
205		        
Jeremy Harris Bowled  41 6
Alex Haffner Lbw  35 2
Adam Brand Caught  17 2 1 1
Nigel Rothband Bowled  2 1
Dan Cohen Bowled  13 1
Neil Lederman Not Out  37 2 2
Simeon Cohen Run out  9 1
Saul Weitzman Bowled  0
Aviel Schwarz Not Out  1 1
Andy Landesberg  
Josh Frey  

North London Muslims Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Seleman8.003000.003.75
Aamir8.004600.005.75
Marz7.003400.004.86
Az8.0035135.004.38
Riz8.0035311.674.38
Faiz0.50800.009.60