Ealing Breeze Into Round 3 of the National 45 Over Competition

Ealing v Harrow St Mary’s

Venue: Home Weather: Sunny, warm, breezy
Pitch: Hard, flat Toss won by: Ealing

Result: Ealing win by 121 runs.

Ealing: 280-4 (45)
Ahmed Elech: 170 not out

Harrow St Marys: 159 all out (34.1)
Kristian Martin: 4-21
Rob Bentley: 4-36

Report:
After a convincing win on Saturday in the opening League match of the season, on Sunday we turned our attention to the National Knockout, with a home tie against Harrow St Mary’s. We were using the same pitch that produced over 600 runs yesterday and Jonesy had no hesitation in choosing to bat first on winning the toss.

We lost double-centurion Oli early on, but Mylo and Ahmed rebuilt, putting on 76 in the first 15 overs before Mylo was LBW for 24. Robbie took on the mantle and put on a further 63 with Ahmed, who passed 50 in 64 balls.

When Robbie was caught for 20 Anand accumulated nicely until he was dismissed for a run-a-ball 23; but it was Ahmed who was fast stealing the show, going through to a classy century in the 35th over.

Our total was fast becoming a good one, and Ahmed started to cut loose, launching three sixes in four balls to take him past 150. Jonesy batted calmly for an unbeaten 23, allowing Ahmed to punish all the bowlers at the other end, eventually finishing 170 not out from 145 balls, the last pair plundering 90 off the last nine overs to take us up to 280-4 off our 45 overs.

The Harrow St Mary’s reply began in very similar fashion to Eastcote’s yesterday, with the seamers finding absolutely no life from the pitch, the opening batsmen free scoring in the powerplay. The visitors raced to 81-0 off 12 overs before Glasper got the breakthrough, but it was the spinners who once again put the brakes on the run chase. Kristian took our second and third wickets, then got the crucial breakthrough - clean bowling their dangerous opener for 68 to make it 134-4 at the halfway stage.

Our spinners kept up the pressure, the trio of Martin, Lane and Bentley scything through the middle order and tale, with a succession of batsman coming and going, with catches for Ahmed, Glasper, Mylo and Robbie. An apocalyptic collapse saw 130-2 become 146-9, and the game was up for our visitors when their number 11 skied one high to long on to give Bentos his fourth wicket.

It was another comprehensive victory, the winning margin of 121 runs set up by Ahmed’s brilliant century. Thn once again the spinners turned the screw after a flying start from the opposition, and we marched into the National third round and continue our unbeaten start to the season.

For the full scorecard:
http://www.totalcricketscorer.com/TCSLive/TCSScorecard.aspx?id=42850