ByDanny Caro, Danny Caro
MAL picked up their 15th win of the 2010 season with a five-wicket win away to Old Parkonians in Ilford.
Parkonians won the toss and chose to bat, with the pitch looking pretty well-grassed. The opening batsmen struggled to get the ball away with Mark Landau and Charlie Sherrard bowling tight opening spells. The first boundary off the bat did not come until the 11th over of the innings as Shaheed looked to strike across the line in desperation. The first wicket came in Sherrard's seventh over, Grant Traub taking the catch at square leg, with Shaheed departing for 18.
Landau's seven overs went for 18, with Sherrard taking 1-6 from his spell. Michael Klinger and Traub replaced the opening bowlers and Klinger picked up the second wicket with the score on 50, Max Sherrard holding on to a fine high catch, as Vikram tried to up the scoring rate.
The in-form Avi Gelley replaced Klinger, and his introduction saw the wickets start to tumble, with one falling in each of his first three overs. His first fell to a fantastically well-judged catch in the deep by Klinger, the second a good ball found the outer half of the bat and was caught at point by Dan Caplan, and the third bowled the batsman. Traub then got his just rewards, having Berlin held at short cover by Gav Lebens.
With Parkonians 78-6, MAL took their foot off the pedal a little and allowed a partnership to build, but when the end came, it came fairly quickly. Yoav Lebens took two wickets in his third over, the first to s smart stumping by Grant Traub, and the second disturbing the timbers. Then in Parkonians final over Gav Lebens wrapped things up, bowling Umer for 25 and Inqui for 4, as the hosts were dismissed for 141.
Some quick, accurate bowling at the start of the MAL reply saw the visitors in some trouble. Leslie Allweis (0) and Max Sherrard (1) were both clean bowled by Ibrahim, before Dan Caplan (3) and Noam Mirvis (0) found Parkonians 1st XI bowler Baldeep a bit too hot to handle, as both were also clean bowled. This left MAL 17-4 after seven overs.
Grant Traub joined Mark Landau and the pair set about repairing the damage, at first watchfully, knocking the ball around and running well to take the score to 72-4 at 20 overs, leaving 70 needed off 15 overs. After a quick drink, Landau cracked the first three balls to the boundary to ease the pressure, and nine runs came off each of the next two overs, to leave the equation at 39 needed off 12 overs.
Landau was soon through to his half century, but just as it looked as if he and Traub would take MAL through to victory, Traub was held at deep mid-wicket for 40, with just 12 needed for victory. Charlie Sherrard was in no mood to hang around, carving his first ball away for 4, before Landau wrapped things up with a boundary, finishing 61 not out off 67 balls.
MAL won comfortably in the end, by five wickets, but credit must go to Parkonians, who had one of the better bowling attacks that we have faced this season.
Old Parkonians 141 (35 overs) Gelley 3-16, G Lebens 2-6, Y Lebens 2-16, C Sherrard 1-6, Traub 1-17, Klinger 1-18
MAL 144-5 (30.3 overs) Landau 61*, Traub 40, Baldeep 2-14, Ibrahim 2-24, Tariq 1-14
MAL won by 5 wickets