MAL suffered a heavy defeat in a friendly against Woodford Green in south Essex.

On a pitch that looked overly dry, the home skipper won the toss and elected to bat. MAL started well, with Marc Mer and Sam Hillel bowling tight opening spells. Mer picked up the first two wickets, bowling Martin for 12 and having Leigh well held by Khurram Manzoor at extra cover for 2.

Hillel soon had his first wicket bowling Morrow for 9. Avi Gelley replaced Mer and was straight into the wickets as Grant Pakter claimed a good low catch at short cover to remove S. Ijaz for 15.

Gelley bowled well - controlling his length and finding some spin. Manzoor had Tavosi caught behind by Russ Corin for 5, before Gelley picked up A Ijaz for 6, taking a smart caught and bowled chance low to his left.

When Yitzy Hill bowled Ali for 7 Woodford Green were tottering at 81-7. There followed a brilliant fight-back as Chris Masters blasted the ball to all parts, smashing 113 not out in no time at all. He received good support from Palmer, who made 27 before becoming Hillel's second victim, another good catch from Manzoor.

Riaz then joined Masters and proved to be similarly aggressive, striking some strong boundaries in his 28, before he was bowled by Manzoor. Woodford Green finished their 40 overs on 246-9, probably around 50 too many given the surface.

Mark Landau started brightly in reply, but played a poor shot to be caught at mid-wicket for 11. Ryan Pakter was bowled for 0. Adam Katten and Grant Pakter set about carefully rebuilding the innings, until Katten was caught in the gulley for a gritty 12 off 40 balls.

Manzoor and Pakter then produced MAL's best period with the bat as they ran well together and put on more than 50. Manzoor was eventually bowled for 24 by Ijaz, and the innings subsided rather meekly after that, as Hill fell for 0, Hillel for 1 and Sher for 0. Avi Gelley struck one sweet boundary before he too was bowled for 7, before the two wounded men, Mer (hamstring strain) and Corin (trapped nerve in neck), both fell cheaply. Grant Pakter was left unbeaten on 60, his third half century of the season.

A defeat, then, but a friendly against good opposition, who were fielding a majority of players from their Saturday 1st XI, and some good moments to take the positives from.

The next two weeks bring two important league matches where the intensity will need to be upped.