The Opening Strike !

It was the most scenic of backgrounds in the east midlands on a sunny June afternoon.The Trent bridge test match between England and New Zealand was progressing to day 3. Just a few miles away in West Bridgford across the Nottingham Sailing club, NODFA (National Overseas Doctors Family Association) had organised a friendly 35 overs a side game between its cricket team, the Avengers and Sheffield Warriors at the Nottinghamians Rugby Club.

This was Sheffield Warriors’ debut as a hard ball team.Primarily, they are a group of overseas medics who had come together in Parkwood academy, Sheffield in 2019 playing tape ball.They tasted tournament success in that format under their belt from a year ago in a tournament held in Walsall. This though was uncharted territory for them as a team.NODFA chief Kashif Chauhan termed it as a start of “long and prosperous” relationship between NODFA and SHAPD (Sheffield Healthcare Association by Pakistani Doctors) of whom Sheffield Warriors are the affiliate team.

The hosts won the toss and on a surprisingly green wicket,stand in captain Danish Hanif opted to bat on a pitch with prevailing windy conditions that offered a lot of swing to the bowlers.The sailors won’t have minded the breeze.Sheffield started off waywardly in the first over conceding 10 runs but then soon got to grips with the surface which offered them assistance.Sarmad Masood the opening strike bowler for Warriors became the main proponent taking the first two wickets cheaply en route to a 4/28 haul. Zeeshan Hasan provided good assistance to Sarmad in the opening 4 over spell from the other end. Sarmad’s third wicket was scorcher,an in swinger which was unplayable.

Umair Naseem took the fourth wicket dismissing Danish,the skipper and the hosts found themselves 4 down at the drinks break.Enter Faisal Baig, a character straight out of Mushtaq Ahmad’s world of cracking jokes and keeping the team banter up. His first ball was a long hop hit for a 4.The second was a rank googly bamboozling Manik Tikoo who inside edged it onto his leg stump.The leggie had struck gold.He took another bowled and at six down NODFA were losing their tracks.Salman Rashid and Saghir Hussain bowled useful spells gaining a wicket and at one stage the hosts were 104/8.For the hosts M Yasir top scored with 42 ,opening the innings.Asad Maqbool scored 25.

 

A well established 8^th wkt stand provided some comfort and they were able to post 153 on the board. Yousuf Rahman finishing the innings in 33^rd over.This was defendable given the state of the pitch.

 In reply for NODFA,Kashif Chauhan, their veteran attack bowler opened the new ball. He was accurate and deadly from ball one and caused the Warriors front line a lot of discomfort. He took a wicket on his 4^th ball, a plumb leg before. Manik Tikoo  shared the new ball and in his opening over then removed  the Warriors skipper Adeel Rauf with another 4^th ball off stump line beauty that the first slip easily obliged. In his second over Kashif then bowled Ahsan Shaikh. Suddenly, the first three Sheffield  batsmen were  back in the hut scoring ducks each.3 down at 3.

Onto the crease comes Yousuf Rahman,a Rotherham based middle order batsman who loves to play with the aggression from the start.He paced his innings nicely and guided Salman Rashid on the opposite end. Salman unlike his tape ball exploits, went for Misbah like toil.He played doggedly staying at the wicket defending.Yousuf on the other hand had found his flow. With Kashif’s opening burst of 5 overs negotiated, the back up bowling failed to capitalise.A chance came to Manik with a caught and bowled but with that spill, Yousuf got a life and rolled with it.There was no stopping him now.

The two put on a match winning stand of 141 accumulating runs and taking charge of the slower bowlers after setting in. Yousuf  ran out for sublime 68. Salman stayed till the end despite a loss of another wicket, which was  Kashif ‘s 3^rd of the day to guide Warriors ship had sailed safely from troubled waters.Sheffield Warriors had won  by 5 wickets by the the 25^th over but the match was much closer than it suggests.Cricket was the winner. Warriors’ skipper Adeel Rauf praised the strong bowling lineup as well as Salman and Yousuf’s mammoth stand as the decisive factor accounting for the win.

It was a lovely atmosphere with NODFA hosting. Both teams are keen to renew the contest soon.A second match is scheduled for July 2 at the same ground.