Last Sunday we had our first outdoor practice matches of the season and if was very much fun.
We had invited Quivive, Zeemacht and Ajax to this event to play some short matches. Due to the rescheduling to Sunday, Ajax couldn't make it.
Quivive used to be situated in Hoofddorp but will be using our grounds this year so it was a new home game for them aswell.
Zeemacht is a new team situated in Den Helder and will be starting in the 4th league this year.

After welcoming all the players a brief introduction took place in which I stressed to keep the place tidy and ofcourse, the rules:
- 15 over innings to be completed in 60 minutes
- 10 runs awarded to batting team for every over past 60 minutes (slow over rate)
- wides + no-balls were 2 runs and have to be bowled again
- free hit if overstepping
- max 3 overs per bowler
- chucking allowed

Especially the 15 overs an inning seemed to have triggered a lot of questions because being Desi (south-east Asian) and Timemanagment don't really mix.

As of this year, ACC3 consists of a few new faces from them Asif Khan and Mehran Khan (no brothers) did also join the tournament. Ali Rashid isn't a new face but was planning to go to Amstelland so I'm glad he made the right decision to stick with ACC.

The first match was between Quivive and ACC. We fielded first and restricted them to a total of 135 in 15.
Ali got 2 wickets, Saqib and Khurram each had 1 wicket.
Since this was a friendly, I shuffled with the batting order a bit and it didn't work out as planned in my head. In the end we were 17 runs short for a win thus stranded on 119 in 15.
The run getters were Asif Khan 20 (4x4), Khurram 11 (1x4), Abid 11 (1x6) and special mention of Imran's 11 (11x1).

Second match was between Quivive and Zeemacht. Zeemacht looked very promising at start but 108 + 10 runs (slow over rate) = 118 was going to be a difficult total to defend.
Between the innings lunch was served. We had vegetable biryani with raita and salad combined in individual boxes for players, enough drinks and even Gulab Jamun (dessert) afterwards.
Obviously, such a heavy lunch would have an impact on the fielding of Zeemacht....it did and Quivive passed their total in the 12th over.
Atleast everyone enjoyed the lunch so that's a plus point.

Third and final match was between ACC and Zeemacht since Quivive already won both, there was no need to play a 4th match.
We were send in to field (again) and after having 3 balls bowled, I got injured (side strain) so finished off my over without a run-up and yet managed to pick up a wicket.
Luckily our team has a good mix of bowlers who can deliver when required and their total of 105 shouldn't have been a tough target.
Asif picked up 3 wickets, Imran 2 and Ali, Omar both had 1.
In batting we were on target from the moment we started. Zeddy had put up a good solid base and we all chipped in as much as we could.
Zeemacht became much more disciplined in their bowling&fielding and in the last 4 overs we still needed 32 runs.
After the 12th over I asked Zeddy to change (retired out) because runs weren't created anymore and we needed someone to play some odd shots. I got it.
It didn't last long cause my side hurt too much and had to get out (retired hurt) so at that time, I wasn't happy with my decision of Zeddy.
Ali replaced me and came in when 12 were still needed from the last over. A wide gave us 2 and Ali smacked a six and a boundary to finish it off in style.

Run getters Zeddy 36 RO (5x4), Ali 10 (1x4,1x6) and Mehran 9.

In the end we had great weather, good food, good cricket and most importantly, really nice teams who made it into an enjoyable day.
Just a word of thanks to Joost for arranging the field, Eva for opening the clubhouse and Daniel for preparing the pitch as much as possible, thanks guys.

Abid Malik