Maroons – Oliver Austin (c), John Newton (vc), Paul Malpas, Razzaq Mahmood, Manoj Zalpuri, Mike Hall, Ross Candido, Eric Marcellin, Shoaib Meer, Prateek Gadhecha, Santosh Yadav, Irfan Idrees

Greens – Waqar Khattak (c), Phil Mildenhall (vc), Jacque Erasmus, Ben Lyons, Kevin Wright, Sajid Anwar, Bernie Hughes, Deepak Nautyal, Sameer Jolly, Vinay Kumar, Nick Bangs, Vaibhav Krishnan

It was an extremely hot and sunny day at the SRFC. The Maroons won the toss and batted first. There was a solid opening partnership between Oliver Austin (38) and Paul Malpas (75) that repelled the strong opening bowling spells from Deepak Nautyal (8-2-32-1) and Nick Bangs (10-3-36-0). The Greens missed a chance during this period, and regularly beat the bat. The first change bowlers Waqar Khattak (10-2-42-2) and Sajid Anwar (8-0-41-1) offered no respite to the batsmen, but they began to accelerate their scoring between overs 20 and 30. Jon Newton (14) and Ross Candido (20) provided the most aggressive scoring during the last 20 overs of the innings, and there were also brief flourishes from Razzaq Mahmood (6), Manoj Zalpuri (8), Mike Hall (14), Eric Marcellin (4) and Shoaib Meer (24). Khattak and Bangs were the most dangerous bowlers for the Greens. Vinay Kumar (9-0-54-0) also provided a steady spell of spin bowling during the middle overs, and Phil Mildenhall (3-0-20-1) picked up the key wicket of Malpas. The Greens fielding and teamwork dropped off during the 30 – 40 over period, which allowing Maroons to build momentum.

Jacques Erasmas (68) and first Ben Lyons (7), then Kevin Wright (34) made a good start against Mahmood (10-1-32-1) and Prateek Gadhecha (3-0-59-3), by efficiently punishing the bad balls. Although Mahmood and Gadhecha beat the bat regularly, there was not the same dominance of bat over ball seen in the early stages of the Maroons innings. Erasmus was particularly aggressive against Irfan Idrees (10-1-54-2), and following his wicket, Khattak (2) also departed quickly. Anwar (40) played some extremely powerful shots against both Santosh Yadav (10-0-56-2) and Idrees, but was out to a spectacular running catch in the outfield by Malpas, which gave the Maroons belief in the field.

Mildenhall (21) and Bernie Hughes (38) maintained good control over proceedings after the final drinks break, but the Greens collapsed against Idrees, Mahmood and Marcellin (5-1-22-2), losing their last five wickets for 17 runs over six overs. Newton and Candido both took two good catches, and Marcellin claimed the last two wickets off consecutive deliveries. As this was a trial game, Bangs continued to bat out the 50th over and hit two big 6s. For Maroons, Mahmood was the most consistent bowler. Gadhecha bowled some very good deliveries, but also allowed the batsmen the opportunity to take some runs and release the pressure he was building up. Yadav and Meer (5-0-37-0) were steady, and Idrees recovered from the initial assault of Erasmus and Anwar to come back with Marcellin and take key wickets at the end of the match to finish the job for Maroons.

This was an extremely entertaining game, with the two teams were evenly balanced. The Maroons maintained their team-spirit and energy better than the Greens during the innings in the field. However, the Greens were ahead on run rate for the whole match, but the collapse at the end cost them the match. The match was played competitively, with good sportsmanship shown by both sides.