The first match of the season was played on a beautiful sunny day against Bloemendaal 3.
Winning the toss is usually a good sign and so did we.
After hearing some rumours about the pitch, the decision to field first was made.
It proved to be a good one because in the first 8 overs, 3 wickets fell: 2 by Abid Malik and 1 by Ali Rashid.
Ali is one of the new promising players ACC4 (formerly known as ACC3) has this year.

Unlucky for the 1st change bowlers Omar Raja (another new high potential) and Teja Kalyan (yep, another new ACC4 member) that they stayed wicketless.

As wickets were the key, attacking bowlers, Imran Sheikh and Guy Patak were put on.
Imran is now a full member of ACC4 and is showing alot of progress with bat and bowl.
Guy has been a solid and consistent member of the ACC3/ACC4 now and still proving to be valuable for the team.
The change provided success. By the end of the 14th over another 2 wickets fell, shared amongst Imran and Guy.
Their score was now 31/5 in 13.
Special mention for the excellent wicketkeeping by another new ACC member, Amir Saleem.
This is his first year ever playing club cricket and already doing a really good job.

Unfortunate for us that the batsmen were using their strategy of blocking every ball and stay there until the 40th over.
Eventually, one of their (senior)batsman got so frustrated (with himself or the score remains a mistery), that on one appeal he shouted to the fielders that he was not out...
His frustration cost the team because Ali, Imran and Guy ended their innings in the 34th over with a total of 108.
Had the catches on Ali's bowling been held, their innings should have been over much earlier.
On of this 'almost' catch, injured Anil Pashra (played a few matches last year) badly under his chin and he had to be taken to the 1st aid.
Another special mention to Anil's sportmanship as he came back after the stitching and stayed with us until the end of the match.
Excellent mentality.

Bowling figures:
Abid Malik 6-1-19-2
Ali Rashid 8-1-16-2
Imran Sheikh 5-0-23-3
Guy Patak 6.3-2-9-3
Omar Raja 5-0-12-0
Anil Pashra 3-0-8-0

After having a great lunch, we had to bat and score 109. Usually not a huge total to defend.
The captain gave the batters specific instructions: score the runs as you were in a net-practice i.e. get in, score the runs, and have drinks.
To thank Sikander for substituting, we allowed him to open the batting together with Zahid (Zeddy) Malik.
It proved be a good choice as we were on 40/0 in 7. The next over Sikander fell (8) due to the uneven bounce on the pitch (we really should fix the pitch).
Holding catches counts for any team, the same chap who shouted to the fielders, dropped Zeddy twice which proved to be costly.
In 18 overs we were on 89 when Zeddy's (45) controversial run-out happened.
While running, Ali's hat fell on the pitch. When they walked over to get the hat from the pitch, after being convinced that the play was stopped, the keeper (also their captain) stumped Zeddy and appealed and was given out. Very unlucky.
Not much time was wasted as Imran and Ali's partnership clicked and with a long-on hit for four the match was ended in the 19th over.
Great win in a very well executed manner.

Batting figures:
Sikander 8
Zeddy 45
Khurram 7
Ali 23
Imran 12

Unfortunate to see that, even on this level, teams forget the ethics of cricket.
In the end, winning a game convincingly, is the shortfire way to silence the opposition.

AM