Highlights of Ashford 5XI vs Guildford 5XI

Umair Aziz - 102 not out
Tarun Kapoor - 30 and 3 wickets and one runout.
Tahir Khan - 3 wickets and 18 runs

Thank you all for a wonderful team performance today.

Losing the toss and being put into bat on a challenging pitch where the bounce was uneven and unpredictable, Ashford 5s put up a total of 220 runs in 40 overs. Umair and Manraj opened up the batting for us and they put their head down to apply themselves to ensure we dont lose any wickets on a unpredictable pitch where batting was not going to be easy. While Umair was watchful initially, Manraj opened up with a few of his trademark square drive fours which set the tone of the innings. We lost Manraj after 10 overs to some unpredictable bounce. Bobby came in next and started his innings with a boundary but was dismissed to good ball on the legstump. Next came in Tahir Khan and along with Umair, got the score moving with some wonderful quick singles and doubles to stitch together a 95 run partnership. Once Umair got set, he took the bowlers to the cleaners with some delightful boundaries and notched up his first century of the season. Keeping the team spirit in mind, Umair retired himself to give other batters a chance to bat in the match. Tahir played a very sensible innings to ensure the team innings does not fall apart. Once Tahir got dismissed, Arvind started his innings with a boundary but was unfortunately run out. Tarun came in in the last 10 overs to put together a quickfire 30 and his powerful strokes to the boundary were a treat to watch. Kaleem, Keith batted around Tarun and the innings closed on 220 in 40 overs for the loss of 9 wickets.

Opening the bowling was Craig the Turner and he got a wicket with his first ball of his spell. Craig bowled straight and with intent and would have bagged 3 more wickets, only if some catches were held. Craig's spell put a lot of the pressure on the batters and they had to resort to some blind hitting to get going. Hardeep coming back in to cricket after 1.5 years, bowled a good spell but was not rewarded with a wicket. Keith Manning came on as first change and bowled a very tight line to make life difficult for the batters. His efforts bore fruit and he got a wicket at a very crucial stage of the match.

Then the TKs took over and it was a very good exhibition of fine bowling by both of them. The opposition had no answer to the web of spin built around them. Tahir got us the first breakthrough when the opposition partnership was going good and then bowled a tight spell which got him 3 wickets. Tarun bowled his mystery deliveries to bamboozle the batters to bag 4 wickets and wrap the opposition to 110 all out in 25 overs. Tarun and Tahir was supported by Bobby behind the stumps with a good catch and some amazing saves !

Very Well played Ashford 5s, keep it up.