A Northern Jewish Cricket (NJCL) Combined team from the Salford and Sedgley clubs took on the Heatons Muslims Community Trust (HMCT) in a friendly fixture on Sunday.
After clearing standing water from the pitch, a reduced 25 over a side match was played in a jovial atmosphere with both teams enjoying the spirit of the other.
NJCL won the toss and put HMCT in to bat on the damp wicket. It looked to be a good decision as the HMCT were reduced to 23 for 3 after 8 overs, Davidi Newmann bowling with pace and swing to pick up two wickets and Alex Woolfstein bowling with great control and picking up one wicket.
Hussnain, the HMCT captain along with Arif started to play some big shots. Both were dropped, to the NJCL’s cost, as they put on 63 runs for the fourth wicket in 10 overs.
With HMCT heading for a big score, Elliot Koffman’s off spin was introduced and he had Hussnain caught magnificently on the boundary by Zev Lansman and then bowled Arif behind his legs for 36.
With the initiative taken back, the NJCL side held HMCT to 112 for 9 off their 25 overs. Koffman took two further wickets to finish with excellent figures of 4 for 19.
The NJCL’s reply started slowly with Zacky Pfeffer and Alex Dover putting on 25 runs for the second wicket before Pfeffer was caught off Ali Amer in the 9th over. Amer had the battling Dover caught next ball for 12 and NJCL were struggling at 25 for 3.
Captain Jonny Wineberg (11) and the ebullient Robert Marks (18) helped to get the run rate down but, with the match beautifully poised with NJCL needing 23 to win off the last 5 overs, an unfortunate incident denied a great finish. Elliot Koffman, looking confident at the crease, was caught on the thumb by a full toss no ball and forced to retire hurt.
Hussnain then took the final two NJCL wickets and, with Koffman unable to return, HMCT ran our winners by 21 runs.
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