10:15am Monday 26th July 2010
Old Whitgiftians 284-9, 66 overs Pyrford 238-9, 55 overs Match Drawn - Pyrford 4 points OW 1 point Stubborn resistance from Pyrford's last pair saw Old Whitgiftians' recent winning streak come to an end on Saturday as they suffered a losing draw at Croham Road.
Pyrford skipper Rob Pole was pleased to win the toss and inserted OWs on a flat wicket that was likely to assist the seamers early on following some heavy rain on Thursday.
And so it proved as although David Ward struck the first ball of the day from Pete Sellick majestically through extra cover for four but lost his leg stump in the next delivery as it seamed back off the pitch to spark a mass celebration form the Pyrford team.
Sam Woodward joined Laurie Evans at the crease and these two looked composed in adding 44 for the second wicket in 10 overs before Woodward fell in identical fashion to Ward, 48-2.
The very accurate Cambridgeshire off spinner Paul McMahon was introduced form the 16th over and bowled unchanged for the rest of the innings and he struck twice with the score on 74.
Laurie Evans was lured down the track and was easily stumped for 38 and Alex Goward offered no shot and was out lbw for a duck second ball.
Ahmad Raja was looking very fluent and had made an attractive 36 before trying to work Chris Pole to mid-wicket and falling lbw as OW went to the lunch break with a lot to do at 124-5 from 33 overs.
Mike Winson, in a rare but welcome appearance after his family move to Oxfordshire, was playing well in tandem with Murtaza but didn't carry through with a lofted drive against Pole and was easily caught at mid off and OW's were now 152-6 in the 45th.
From this point Murtaza showed his class and dominated the bowling first adding 75 in 13 overs with Jason Lewis and then 47 in just seven overs as Sean Coughlan came in at number nine and played a lovely cameo making 29 in just 25 balls.
Murtaza was eventually run out in the 65th over for a tremendous 94 as he called a very tight single to the keeper and Ward decided to go the whole 66 overs as OW's closed on 284-9.
Sellick took 3-39 and McMahon 3-76 for the visitors who had a minimum of 54 overs to chase down the runs.
Jonathan Hedges and Sys Meyer put on 41 for the first wicket in nine overs as Evans and Lewis bowled lively spells.
Meyer survived a hard hit chance when on just 11 off Evans bowling in the ninth over before Jason Lewis pulled off a terrific catch inches from the ground in the deep to dismiss Hedges a few balls later.
Ward introduced his spinners with Van Den Bergh on for the 12th over and Murtaza on for the 15th and it was Murtaza who struck next inducing Jake Smith to loosely sky one to mid off for 31 in his second over, 78-2, just before the tea break.
Rob Pole fell soon after tea, a very good catch by Shan Malik off Murtaza and when the same bowler rapidly accounted for both Josh Hemmant and Martin Snow, Pyrford were in trouble at 112-5 in the 29th.
At this point Paul McMahon came in and played very well in supporting Meyer who started to up the anti and these two added 88 in just 14 overs with Meyer going to a fine 100 in just 112 balls before eventually missing a pull off Murtaza to be out for 111 with Pyrford on 200-6 in the 43rd.
Sellick was Murtaza's sixth victim, caught behind by Coughlan soon after and when Van Den Bergh accounted for both Chris Pole, very well caught by Mike Winson diving backwards in the deep and then James Lipscombe, lbw for a duck, four overs were left and an OW win on the cards with Pyrford were now 224-9 after 50.
Pyrford thoughts were by now turned towards the winning draw target of 233 as McMahon expertly picked up the odd run and shepherded number 11 Alex Dunlavey simultaneously.
Ward gave McMahon the single and crowded the bat for Dunlavey but was in the event only allowed eight balls at the Pyrford last man as McMahon played very well for an unbeaten 57.
At the end of the 54th over the visitors had made it to 235 but there was to be final twist as the clock had not quite reached 7.40pm and the umpires allowed one more over as McMahon prepared to stride off.
The revised win draw target was now 238 which Pyrford achieved to leave OW's feeling very frustrated to be just one wicket away from another 13 points.
Murtaza returned a season's best 6-65 to cap a fine personal all round display.
Having been five points behind leaders Spencer when play started, OWs are now 17 points adrift and have slipped from second to fourth behind Cheam and Normandy.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/trade_directory/