London Maccabi Vale 2nd dented MAL’s promotion hopes with a seven-wicket victory in Middlesex Sunday League Division Three.
The result saw MAL suffer only their second league defeat of the season but in truth Vale were the better side throughout, and cruised to victory with more than 10 overs remaining.
Vale skipper Jon Lederman won the toss and asked MAL to bat. The pitch proved to be very two-paced with the ball not coming on to the bat and the batsmen struggling to time the ball.
Adam Katten was the first man to go spooning a return catch to Simon Renshaw in the second over for 0.
Russ Corin joined Mark Landau and the pair put on 44 before Corin tried to cut a wide ball from Greenwall-Cohen and was caught at point for 20.
Yoav Lebens was next in, and his partnership with Mark Landau bore 33 runs before Landau smashed a catch to mid-off where Andy Landsberg held on at the second grab to give Jon Lederman the first of his three wickets, for a hard fought 35 from 58 balls.
The next three batsmen, Matt Plax, Marc Mer and Brad Sacher all made ducks, and with Yoav growing increasingly in fluency, there was a real danger of MAL being bowled out for around 110.
Gav Lebens, battling a sickness bug, battled very hard, and put on 54 with his younger brother, as Yoav went to a fourth league half century of the season.
When Gav went for 19, LBW to David Marks, Yoav marshalled the tail sensibly and was able to add another 30 runs with numbers 9, 10 and 11, Klinger, Gelley and Gertner before Ben Lederman wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Gertner.
Yoav finished on a tremendous 80 not out, to take his tally for the league season to 306 runs at an average of 61.20
Knowing that 174 was probably a bit short, it was imperative that MAL started well with the ball, and they did just that; Yoav Lebens finding prodigious swing to trap Ben Lederman LBW in the second over.
The second wicket followed four overs later, as a terrible mix-up between the wickets saw both batsmen at the non-strikers end and Richard Black was run out for 10, with Avi Gelley providing a good throw to make the run out easy for Russ Corin.
The third wicket fell in Yoav’s final over, with the score on 36, as a swinging yorker bowled Scott Gerrard for five. That would be the last success that MAL would have though, with David Freedman and Daniel Caplan calmly seeing off the impressive opening bowlers, Yoav Lebens (8-1-12-2) and Michael Klinger (8-0-33-0), before they took toll on the change bowlers, a partnership of 141 in just over 14 overs rushing Vale to a well deserved victory.
Freedman finished on 73 not out, and Caplan unbeaten on 37.
MAL 174 (38.1 overs) Yoav Lebens 80*, Mark Landau 35, Russ Corin 20, J Lederman 3-23, Greenwall-Cohen 3-35
London Maccabi Vale 177-3 (29.3 overs) D Freedman 73*, Caplan 37*, Y Lebens 2-12
LMV won by 7 wickets
