Casuals edge out B&D in a nail-biter

Casuals began their season with a nail-biter, beating the ever-improving BritDom side by a single wicket. New skipper Floody won the toss and inserted the opposition on what looked like a slightly soft, typical early season wicket but despite losing Derek Polley early, the B&D’s middle order got their heads down and grafted their way through their 40 overs. Captain Jimmy Pearce scored a patient 36, and David Collicutt a quickfire 29* at the end, but the bulk of the runs came from Grant Gillingham, who was unlucky to be left unbeaten on 97*. Wickets were hard to come by for the Casuals bowlers, but their accuracy (Asif Munir 8-0-24-1, Amyn 8-1-38-1, Farhad 6-2-26-0), backed up with good fielding, kept the B&D’s score to 222-3. Casuals lost Mudassar early, but runs began to come quickly and steadily once B&D’s dangerous new-ball bowlers were out of the attack. Adnan (30) and Asif (35) put on 60 runs in just 10 overs before both were out when each had a big score for the taking. Rameez (15), Amyn (22) and Max Zaidi (23) all got a good start, but wickets seem to fall just at the wrong times and, with the score at 149-8 at the start of the 26th over, things looked bleak for the Casuals. Saquib and Omair, however, had other ideas. For the next ten overs, they pushed singles, scrambled twos and pulled out the occasional glorious boundary in a partnership of 61 to completely take the game by the scruff of the neck. The B&D’s fielders started to wilt in the heat, allowing just too many costly errors, and even when Saquib finally snicked a catch behind, they couldn’t find enough energy to take the final wicket – captain Floody stealing the win with a couple of boundaries, with 8 balls to spare.