Last Sundays match was again a real nailbiter and played in an excellent atmosphere. It was good to see that the 1st team players also came over to watch our match.
They enjoyed the match against Kikkers, which we won in the last over. And now this one, which we tied also, in the last over. We just have the habit to either win easily or just sneak home. In the end, we just play the way we do to please the crowd.

After two weekends rest and almost everyone performing the fasting in this holy month Ramadan, the expectations to perform top level were slim.
We assumed playing against Ajax would be a bit challenging but the two points should be in the pocket. I guess, I was half right.

Looking at the conditions, we agreed what to do: I wanted to field first and they bat, so didn't need to toss and off we went. The last couple of matches I've lost the toss yet won matches so just for the record, they won the toss.

We started with ACC's premium openingsbowler, Zahid Shah and he proved his worth by cleanbowling batter 1 and 3 in consecutive balls. Unfortunately, he didn't get a hattrick but no runs against either.
Zee bowled as he always does, with pace. This meant the batters either blocked or left him. Their other opener tried cutting him but found the safe hands of Saqib instead. 15/3 after 6.
Shah was on a role and in his fifth over he got their batter 5 out with a slower ball, caught at midwicket by Zee. 17/4
I replaced Zee and right in my first over, I too got their batter bowled. The next over, Shah produced a good slower delivery and that batsman just pocked at it into my hands on mid-on. 21/6 after 12.
Have to admit that the low score had much to do with our tight bowling but Amir, although fasting, was very sharp behind the stumps and save runs.
This was a dream start and we should have gone for the kill but for no particular reason, we loosened our grip. The next two wickets after their captain took even more initiative but couldn't help the runouts by Khurram (into hands of Amir who broke the stumps and Asif (direct hit). 74/8
It's by then their captain really pushed the paddle and we saw dots turned into singles, singles into doubles and boundaries. He managed to get his century but got tricked into playing a shorter ball.
Zeddy at covers ran backwards, turned and took a brilliant important catch over his head. 150/9 after 37.
The last two batsmen, well, one was a lady, just hit out everywhere so they ended up with 182 runs on the board.
From 21/6 ending up with 182/9......ah well, at least this game would be challenging.

Bowling:
Zahid Shah: 10-1-24-4
Zee: 8-34-2
Abid: 9-44-1

Having no lunch this time, Zeddy and Asif started the run chase and off they went. As a comparison, they were 21/6 after 12, we where 58 with no wickets down.
Asif was admired for his jumping to off and pulling it the ball over the squareleg boundary. The tried it once too many and the legspinner got him with a leading edge. 58/1
With Saqib in at 3, Zeddy and he kept the scoreboard ticking until Zeddy got out in a very unusual fashion. Zeddy tried to pull the leggy behind square but  somehow the bails fell off without the ball nor him hitting them. The opposition went straight for the review with only one left and the not-out decision was overturned and Zeddy had to walk. 72/2 after 16.
Still very much on target Aswhin, new member, went in on 4 and supported Saqib. He too got tempted by the leggy and was caught. 99/3 after 22.
Usman really took his time and before he got off the mark, he blocked thirteen balls but the shots he played were doubles. We all assume that Saqib got a bit nervous with all the blocking and smacked three consecutive boundaries before charging the bowler to smack a six. The charge was good but not in line and he got stumped. 119/4 after 28.
Usman got a bit warmed up but he pocked at a fullish ball and it went up in the air to be caught. 119/5. Now we had two new batsmen at the crease, Khurram and Amir.
It was a deja-vu, Khurram played a half shot and he too got caught with adding just a few on the board. 123/6
I got in at 8 already to hopefully, see us all home but I too played a terrible half shot right in the hands of mid off. 128/7
Amir reassessed the position we were in and brought back some piece in the batting together with Guy.
He blocked the bad ball and punished the bad ones. Unfortunately, there weren't many bad ones so runs had to be created. Their partnership was a well needed one until Guy got out caught&bowled on another spectacular display. Guy played the ball straight back towards the bowler and hit him on his boot, the ball looped in the air and in his 3rd attempt he held on to it. 147/8 after 35
So, five overs left to score atleast 35 for a tie with only 2 wickets left. I still believed we could win this game.
Zee did what he can do best, try to hit everything out of the park. It worked until he decided to leave one and got bowled. 159/10
Amir really took the initiative and kept strike as much as possible but the probably forgot the experience of Zahid Shah. He made sure Amir got that extra little boost to create singles and hit boundaries.
In the final over, we were still 8 runs short of a win. The bowler helped us by giving 6 wides in his first two balls. Thereafter Shah played a single to let Amir hit the winning runs from 5 balls.
The bowler produced a delivery which you just can't play and Amir was a bit late and the ball hit top of his pads and hit offstump. All out on 182 but a Tie as a result.
In the end, the right result for this game and we should be glad to get the one point which could be the championship winning point.

Batting.
Asif: 37 (5x4, 1x6) st. 137,03
Saqib: 31 (4x4) st. 56,4
Zeddy: 23 (2x4) st. 52,3
Amir: 23 (2x4) st. 104,5
Zee: 11 (1x6) st. 220

Man of the match: Amir Saleem

Abid Malik