Surrey Championship Division 5
Croydon Municipal Officers 104 all out (32.2 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 106 for 4 (21.2 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon, (13 points), beat Croydon Municipal Officers, (0 points), by 6 wickets
Birthday boy Tim Handel took 5 for 32 and captain Siddhartha Lahiri hit an unbeaten 70 as Stoke D’Abernon completed a double win over bottom troubled Croydon MO.
Without the visitors having a full XI at the toss, Lahiri chose to bowl first to make the most of their disorganisation, and Handel made an early breakthrough in the second over when F.Chowdery was castled for a second ball duck. The score was already 14 as Abid Ali decided to swing at everything at the other end, initially with great success.
It was, effectively, two games within a game in the early exchanges. Handel opened with four maidens, and collected the second wicket of Waqas Khan for 17-ball duck. Ali set up camp at the other end and raced to 40 off just 25 balls with eight fours and a six before one hit too many with the total on 44 gave Toby Tarrant a wicket courtesy of a good catch by Ian Hopton who moved smartly from mid-off to mid-on.
A.Chowdery and Kamran Shah were unable to make progress against Handel and first change Josh Howe. Chowdery bottom-edged a Handel delivery to Will Patrick behind the timbers, then Shah, who hit an unbeaten 150 in the corresponding fixture last season, departed for just 15 when he drove a flighted delivery from Howe to Hopton in the covers. 66 for 5.
Howe’s bowling was a joy to watch. Variation of flight, pace and spin bemused No.6 Shariff and the end result was the classic leg-spinner’s dismissal when a ball turned, bounced, took the shoulder of the bat at Patrick did the rest. Howe returned excellent figures of 9-3-17-2.
After that it was a procession as visiting captain Sherwani, watched the tail disappear. N.Chowdery was bowled by Handel; Akram, (12), flashed at a rare wide delivery from the same bowler and Hiken Shah held on to a stinging catch at slip to complete the 5-for; Zoheeb, (11), tried one blow for freedom too many and picked out Tarrant in the deep to give Hopton a wicket in his solitary over; then Tarrant, (2-51), returned to close the innings in the 33rd over when Raheel was leg-before second ball.
Handel led the Stoke players off the field with final figures of 15-7-32-5.
In reply Lahiri hit a two and a single off the first two balls to bring Shah on strike. Shah took a leg-stump guard from one of two neutral umpires standing in this match, but lost that stump to the first ball he faced from Kamran Shah.
In the third over Handel clipped a delivery from the same bowler to mid-wicket for just six; but the score was already well advanced as Lahiri was dealing almost exclusively in boundaries; a trend that would continue as he brought up his half-century with his eleventh four.
Jack Raimondo provided solid support at the other end, and it was a surprise to all when he tried to hit over the infield for the first time only to pick out Waqas Khan off the bowling of Shariff for 12. Two balls later Jay Stevenson fell in the same manner; but Will Gudgeon, (16no), smashed four of the 13 balls he faced, including the winning hit, to complete an easy six wicket victory.
Lahiri’s unbeaten 70 included a final boundary count of 14. Next week, Stoke face promotion chasing Chertsey.
Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10911092