MAL maintained their 100 per cent Middlesex Sunday League record with an impressive win over West Harrow in Division Two.
MAL won the toss in bright conditions and chose to bat first with memories of the previous matches' 300 still fresh in the mind. A very solid and sensible partnership between Warren and Ami laid a solid foundation of 87 off the first 17 overs. Ami was out first with a nice innings of 44 off 43 before ending in spectacular fashion, when like last week, he raced down the pitch, missed the ball, and was stumped.
Caller was out in the first over after drinks with the score at 107-2. This sparked a dramatic collapse as the next five wickets fell for just 40 runs. Warren was out third for 44 off 76 while only one other batsman, Chris, passed into double figures.
Guv Lebens joined Binny Feinmesser in the middle with MAL in a precarious situation of 147-7. However a bit of tail wagging created an extremely valuable eighth wicket partnership of 40, with Binny posting a career best score of 29.
Once Guv was out for 11 the rest of the tail didn't last long, Binny was out shortly after, and Eli was unfortunate to play his first ball onto his stumps. Neil Myeroff survived on 0 without having faced a delivery. MAL posted a total score of 189 all out, which was much nearer to par of 200 then it looked like they would reach at one stage, and much lower than they could have achieved after the first-wicket partnership.
Refreshed after watching the tennis, MAL strode into the middle determined to keep their unbeaten run going. A fantastic opening to the bowling from Binny and Yoav Lebens had West Harrow at 13-3 from the first four overs. Two brilliant catches at second slip from Avi, one diving to his left, off Yoav's bowling, set the tone for the rest of the match with MAL not dropping a single chance. Binny's wicket was a fantastic delivery which cannoned into the off stump.
Two more wickets fell in quick succession in the ninth and 10th over, with one more each for Binny and Yoav. MAL thought they had their man when the stumps were uprooted by another brilliant Yoav delivery, however a no-ball was called to everyone's disbelief. The very next ball however, was a legitimate one and Yoav had his man clean bowled. Binny's wicket was again down to some brilliant fielding; Yoav ran in from behind the batsman and diving full-length to take a superb catch with no other fielders anywhere near him.
An inspired bowling change from Yoav brought another wicket, this time for Neil Myeroff, getting Akash, the danger man, out for 30 with another catch taken in the field. A 26-run partnership was broken by Neil when he trapped the opposition batsman LBW on 17. This left Eli to be brought on and clean up the tail and he did exactly that, with the help of another piece of unbelievable fielding. The ball was smashed to Ami who dived instinctively to his left to parry the ball and as he landed claimed a glorious diving one-handed catch.
The last wicket was taken by Eli, with Chris taking a regulation catch at mid-on. With Harrow's no. 11 not coming on, hands were shaken and MAL had West Harrow all out for 101, a victory by 88 runs.
Four wins from four games now in the league, with Camdenians becoming a much talked about fortress for MAL.