Optimists Cricket Club

Having been beaten in every game so far this season in the BCF 1st Division, the Optimists knew a win was must if they had any chance of staying in the 1st division.

Skipper Joost Mees won the toss and decided to field first.
Exiles were immediately in trouble with some solid bowling from Nishith Gandhi and Taral Desai. Both bowling a good line and length and Desai receiving the accolades of two early wickets.
Arjun Nandal was then introduced into the attack and immediately made an impact with two quick wickets falling from two good slip catches taken by Joost Mees and Richard Neale respectively.
At 37-6 off 14 overs, it looked like it could be an early finish but the Exiles lower order held thier nerve and batted cautiously whilst accumulating the runs.
Anand Pattibiraman bowled his delicate off-spin and although bowled well, ended wicketless. Iqqi Murad also bowled well at the other end and took two wickets, one was an excellent caught behind by wicket-keeper, Graham Cope.
Neale came on and offered a bit of pace and was able to break up the partnership that seemed to elude the Optimists and so it was left to Nishith Gandhi to wrap things up with two quick wickets in the 41st over to bowl the Exiles all out for 128.

Tim Barker and Arjun Nandal were expected to lead the charge in reply but after looking pretty solid both were caught and with the quick wickets of Ali Siddiqui and Samir Kalra, the Optimists were in a bit of trouble at 39-4 off 12 overs.
However, Joost Mees and Richard Neale set about re-building the innings by taking singles and punishing the bad balls and tried to keep the risks to a minimum.
Both batted with patience but eventually Mees was trapped LBW. However, his job was done and he made a fine 29 leaving Neale and new batsman Desai to knock off the final 40 runs with 20 overs to spare.
Both Neale and Desai continued the cautious approach which paid off when Desai hit the winning runs in the 34th over.
Neale batted solidly for a 39 not out and Desai ended with 25 not out.

It was a great win and the Optimists will look to build on this in the remaining game to ensure they not only stay up but finish in a respectable position after such a bad start to the season in this format of the game.

Exiles: 128 all out (Desai 3-33, Nandal 2-18, Gandhi 2-20, Iqqi, 2-26, Neale 1-7)
Optimists 130-5 (Neale 39*, Mees 29, Desai 25*)

Richard Neale