Typical dutch weather: wet, rain, cloudy and not to mention, cold too.
Having read the oppositions scorecards against other teams, fielding first was the best choise. Especially if we have the strongest openingsbowling attack in the league imo.
Ofcourse, that does not count on our 1st ground; that's a pure batting track. That we felt straight away as WCR started off fast.
Zahid Shah and Ali couldn't prevent their batsmen going after them and with a mere 6 overs on the board, they were on 45.

They say "the 1st change bowlers get the wickets" and exactly that happenend in the right time. In the first over I took 3 wickets, including a hattrick chance.
Just to mention, I blew that chance by bowling a wide and the next ball cleanbowling the batsman..if only...
That over somewhat changed the course of the game as their topscoring batsmen where out.
The rest was as we call them the 'legside batsmen' and despite us trying to get them out, they kept scoring. Although slower than in the first part of the innings.
As wickets were the target now and with our other bowlers, Guy and Imran out due to injuries, we had to take more chances and try different bowlers.
Fortunately, wickets were falling in a fairly steady pace. The wickettaking bowling by Ali kicked in on the right time as he managed to take 4 wickets in his 8 overs.
Sanjay's change into spinbowling took 1 wicket and there was also a Run-out. Two Run-outs but only one was given.
In the end, they managed to lift up the score to 149 with some help by Mr. Extra.

We knew we had to fight hard for it as the pitch wasn't getting any faster nor should we expect their bowling to be.
Zeddy opened with Sanjay the way we are used to see, attacking and always looking for a run a ball.
They were going steadily and before we knew it, 46 were on the board when Sanjay's wicket fell. He got a bit tempted by a longhop, mistimed it and it hit the stumps.
Our no.3 Amir continued where Sanjay left and scored some nice square and cover boundaries.
On the other end, Zeddy showed us batting from the MCC cricketbook and managed, for the first time, to score his well deserved half century.
Now the game looked to be heading our way but Amir played one square shot too many and got caught with 127 runs on the board.
Ali got in and his Turkey holiday did him good as it took him a few balls together with Zeddy to win the game.

Zeddy: 73 not out
Amir: 28
Ali: 17
Sanjay: 12

Man of the Match: Zeddy

Another well fought win in the pocket. I can now enjoy my week in Barcelona, well done boys!

Abid Malik