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

CLAYTON YOUTH 120-9 ACCRINGTON A 195 ALL OUT

We won our first league match of the season today. It was a brilliant day to play cricket and my streak of winning the toss continues unabated. It comes as a small shock to the system when you win only your second toss of the season. I decided to bat first without an ounce of hesitation. The mathematical equation that took me to this decision involved taking into account the average weight per player of my team (a lot.....a heck of a lot) divided by the heat (about 25C) times the energy exertions in the field,equals trouble and ambulances, therefor batting first would be the wiser move (between them, my team have only seen gyms from the outside...one of them even went in once and but got lost).

I decided to open the batting with my cousin Nasser (very unfortunate...but we all have disabilities, weaknesses and something to be ashamed of and at this stage I would like to point out that this is mine before anyone else has a chance to do so). We started off very positively. Nasser was particularly aggressive, showing a panache for the back foot cover drive and within 6 overs we had reached 48 before he was bowled for an understandable rusty but quickfire 34 that contained some stylish shots to the boundary. All he needs to do now is sort his hair and facial fluff out and he'll look the part of a fine top order batsmen, who might get a regular place in the Accy A team (if he's lucky)!.

Ian Johnson continued the pacey momentum hitting a belligerent 17, before holing out. In came Imran to the crease and between us at the half way stage we carried the score to 89-2 off 18 overs. I managed to reach 50 in the 20th over, offering one chance to slip when I was on 30 odd. Just after reaching it I edged to the keeper for 55. Immy hit a Gilchrist type innings before he was out for 36 attempting to turn an easy three into a two! and was short of his ground 'running' his second. In the animal kingdom only the elephant is quicker when it comes to turning around for a second run. When he and D Hargreaves were out (20) we had reached the dizzy heights of 175-5 off 30 overs before we subsided to 195 all out, with the usual cacophony of ducks Still our highest score of the season and a bonus batting point in the bag. Clayton's leading bowler took 4-14 (D Thompson)

The Clayton innings began sluggishly reaching 20-2 at the end of the 8th over and from here on in they attempted to bat out the innings and deny us a bonus bowling point.They managed to do this successfully reaching a 120-9. My mistake and only regret as a captain was not introducing Paul Young in to the attack earlier as he bowled the penultimate and his only over of the innings taking two wickets. Bad error from me. Never the less 5 points from the match gained and our first league win of the season took us off the foot of the table above Clayton. Wickets wise Tom took 3, Immy and Paul 2, Ian and Nasser a wicket a piece.

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