As reported by the Cavaliers
The Cavaliers continued their fine form with an exciting run chase against the familiar faces of Mogador Wanderers. Visiting skipper Andy Tharp won the toss and unsurprisingly chose to bat first and put us in the field in the heat. Chris Nazer and Tom Chellis opened the bowling and immediately put the openers under pressure with tight accurate and fast bowling from Tom, using the vicious inswing to his advantage to clean bowl his first victim. Oli Jago played some neat shots before being bowled by Steve Vickery. Charlie Lee came out to bat and began to attack from the off, clearly feeling confident after a couple of shandies. Vickery chipped in with another wicket to remove the other opener who had survived for rather too long, however this only brought in their big hitter who immediately smashed Kaleem back over his head for 6. Lee departed for a well made 38 as did Brown for a quick fire 39, both removed by the ever exceptional Jiva De Lambert who finished with 3 wickets.
We felt confident of keeping the score under 180 however the Tharp brothers enjoyed some wayward bowling, enthusiastic fielding and poor catching to accelerate the score to 226/7 off their 40 overs.
With a run rate of 5.6 required, Kaleem begun the run chase in destructive fashion and was quickly into double figures, playing some exceptional shots for 4. After a solid opening partnership of 82, Azhar fell for a classy 14 and his replacement Gomez did not last long. Mazhar supported for a while and then 2 quick wickets brought the Mogs back into the game. Home team nerves began to rise but Geoff and Kaleem continued with the run rate and brought victory within sight. Despite a few scares, Kaleem reached his hundred in fine fashion and was duly delighted, and congratulated on his exceptional innings played with real class. A couple of quick wickets fell as Geoff then Judi tried to finish the innings in style, but as Jiva walked to the crease, the remaining llamas in the hutch were so
confident none of them bothered to get changed back into their whites and pad up... The win was wrapped up with 4 byes with 5 overs and 4 wickets to spare, with Kaleem batting through for his superb 111* off 100 balls.
A fantastic game of cricket was rewarded with a fine finish and a thoroughly enjoyable game, as ever, made more entertaining by the presence of familiar faces on both sides!
Footnote
I would merely add that Khaleem was involved in a very very very very close (!) run out at the bowlers end when on about 50. The Mogs fielding was well below par. Lots of extras due to a rather tired and hung-over Lee. A slightly under par bowling attack. But Dave Tharp bowled very well with 1 - 16 off 8.
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