Noddy left stranded!
Thanks to Pat for the match report
On another typical June afternoon, with the wind howling rain in the air and temperatures just above zero, Graces took the field against new opposition in Black Rose. With a damp pitch and a lush outfield, a high scoring game was not on the cards and so it proved. Sherwood and Bielby took the new ball and with miserly accuracy managed four maidens in their first six overs but it took the introduction of Anosh to break the partnership, having Kabir lbw for ten.
Ali joined by Ramu moved the score along despite the efforts of Modi who was weaving his his spell bowling four maidens in his first five overs but it took a double bowling change to bring about a break through, first Ramu was run out then Mendis took the first of his three wickets. With Modi returning to complete his ten overs he finally dismissed Ali the obdurate opener for a hard worked sixty-four with Black Rose finishing on 148 for 7 wickets. Mendis taking 3 for 29 Modi 2 for 19 and Anosh 1 for 43.
In their turn, Graces found conditions just as difficult and by the ninth over they had lost both openers with just seventeen runs on the board. Even the normally fluent Mendis in a stay of 45 minutes managed just one four in his twenty-three and with Kalyan going for ten and Tolley for nought Graces found themselves forty-four for five in the eighteenth over.
Then Modi and Shofiq set about rescuing the situation and with the hundred coming up in the twenty-ninth over and victory a possibility, disaster struck with Modi being run out for twenty-two. Sherwood and Bielby failed to bother the scorer and with Shofiq trying to farm the bowling Anosh became the second run out victim. When Manish was bowled in the last over Graces were eighteen runs short of their target leaving Shofiq undefeated on sixty-two.