Zed's Diary
Follow our new A Team skipper through the trials and tribulations, heartache and pain, during his first season in charge

GUJAR KHAN 234-5 ACCRINGTON A 180 all out

It was a good day to get murdered today, metaphorically speaking of course. The sun was out, we were playing at our home ground and the Gujar Khan captain had just won the toss and elected to bat. My two opening bowlers as always started steadily. I have decided to write off to the Queen so we can get these guys knighted (Tom P and Immy) for they are to Accy a what 'coffee' is to the British and 'size' is to the Japanese and 'low esteem' is to the Americans. These guys are an institution and deserve iconic status as they have carried the Accy bowling attack on their shoulders for decades it seems and it shows in their physique (think what you want here)......Sir Tom Pendergast and Lady Immy Hussain, has a certain buzz to it doesn't it?.

Anyway back to the bowling, Immy and Tom managed to 'reduce' the opposition to 97-3 off 20 overs. Immy surprisingly managed to bowl 14 consecutive overs and could have bowled more had it not been for the demotivating sight of 11 catches going down. His final match figures of 1-87 do no justice for he approached the wicket in the only way he knows...a prissy hesitant manner, like Dale Winton running over hot coals! He deserved better.

Gujar Khan managed to accelerate rapidly taking 137 off the last 16 overs and finally settled on 234-5. Tom had figures of 2-40 and myself 1-30. It was our worst fielding display to date. Gujar Khan's no 5 Shakoor 'Kusra' Khan managed to hit 69 before he was run out. He alone gave 5 catching chances and 2 plum lbw's that were turned down (understandable as the umpire standing at the time ...missed his last opticians appointment...I refuse to name names as I would get reported to the ICC ...but he did wear glasses and he did have quite a domineering physical presence). Mazar was the other top scorer with a aggressive 89, again an innings that contained chances that weren't taken.

Our reply began disastrously as we were reduced to 30-2 in the sixth over. The bowler who had taken the wickets was none other than Azhar 'Mundi lal 'Khan . I managed to get him away to the fence four times before I was bowled for 23. He bowled his deadly unplayable mystery bowl...the pee roller and he's made it into an art form. We managed to carry the score to 110-5 off 21 overs and at this stage victory was beyond us..the incoming batsmen received a simple instruction from me ...get us to 150 and at least we have a bonus batting point and for once the instruction was followed thorough. This was largely due to the batting of Alven Burrows (29 not out) and some lusty hitting from Arshad the 'mangoe' (29). Arshads innings was particularly entertaining as it is his highest score to date. The guy hit the ball that many times in the air that I think the cricket ball ended up suffering from vertigo, on one occasion the ball came back with snow on it. Our innings ended on 184 all out. At least we managed to get a point out of the game.

Don't miss the other installments
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8