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

ATTOCK v ACCRINGTON A: 31st May
Attock won toss and batted
ATTOCK 264-5 (36 overs) ACCRINGTON 101 all out

The above score suggests it all. Attock launched into our main bowlers straight away, reaching 50 within 10 overs. Tom was feeling under the weather (heavy cold) and therefore was used sparingly for only 5 overs, taking into account that we had a key cup match the next day.

Imran Hussain (our other main 'spearhead'), whose fitness levels are on par with a pregnant hippopotamus, was having a bad day with the sun shining on his back. We needed a 999 call out for an ambulance to resuscitate him back to life, after his opening 5 over burst. Again I opted to rest him for the rest of the innings given tomorrow's game.

At the halfway stage Attock had reached 103-2 off only 18 overs, it was at this stage that I realised with my stalwart bowlers out of the attack for the rest of the match, the opposition were going to have a field day. I experimented with no less than 9 bowlers in the innings (in view with us needing a fourth bowler/bowlers for the 9 over limit per bowler in the cup match). Only Abbas Akhbar finished with respectable figures of 2-72 , after he toiled hard (half a dozen chances went down on his bowling as well). The less said about the rest of our bowling the better (including myself).

Attock's opening batter Abrar scored (118), in a 197 run stand with Kashif Anwar (106*) toyed with our bowlers. These centuries only came about due to Accrrington A's fielding and in particular our catching, which was below the standard of a girls rounders team. No less than 10 catches were dropped or not taken.

With this in mind Attock's innings finally rested at 264-5.

Our batting started off as good as our fielding as we were reduced to 20-5 inside the first 8 overs (Immy 0, Ijaz 1, Bernard 2, Dave 4, Abbas 0). Myself and Mark Ashton managed to carry the score to 58 before I slashed at a wide one and was caught (11), with Mark scoring 22 (lost about that many pounds in weight as well in the duration of his innings...but he looks a lot better for it!) but it was a good innings nevertheless. There was some late order hitting especially from Andy Eland who despite having a disability (supporting Rovers) managed to score a career best of 23. Chris Chadwick managed to register his first runs of the season with an unbeaten 4. Accrington A dismissed for 101.

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