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Friday 05 March 2010

Match Report

To download the match scorecards please click here.

Our generous sponsors, Emirates Airline, were very keen for the Taverners to be the first team to play on their newly laid ground on the outskirts of Dubai and adjoining The Sevens, home of the Dubai Sevens Rugby tournament, and we were flattered to be invited.    Last October the ground was just part of an overgrown waste land with a few shrubs in place.   The tour was moved from January to March to allow for the ground to be completed and by the time we arrived in early March we were greeted by a flat, full sized, well grassed cricket field surrounded by a raised mound to form, what seemed like a natural enclosure, with a largely completed pavilion, albeit with some paintwork still drying.  

We were hosted in the Emirates marquee and blessed, for once, with fine weather.  The downside was that the pitch, prepared by the former curator of the test ground in Deli for the last 20 years, was also newly laid and proceeded to play slow and very low, but as they say it was the same for both sides.  It is always best in these circumstances to bat first and that is exactly what the Taverners did, but the general idea is to post a winning total which we significantly failed to do.

Geraint Jones, fresh from a wonderful season for Kent, and Michael Bevan, recently voted the best one day player in the world, struggled to adapt to a bounce to which they were clearly unaccustomed, but nevertheless put on an opening stand of 40 in less than 9 overs before the first wicket fell, closely followed by Chris Adams and Jon Batty who both “failed to trouble the scorers”, but Neal Radford made sure he wasn’t going to give his wicket away, while Neil Smith topped scored with 23 with modest contributions from Gus Mackay, Ian Salisbury, Martyn Ball and Graham Rose.  107 all out in the 30th and last over was not deemed to be a par score.

The outstanding bowling was by the Fly Emirates XI captain, Nigel Gilberts, known to us on previous occasions as Nigel Fernandes who produced the wonderful figures of 6 for 9 in 5.3 overs bowling slow left arm.  This was the best bowling performance against the Taverners for many a long year, and he fully deserved a rapturous applause from the spectators at the lunch interval.

The Fly Emirates XI reply was more sedate even than the Taverners, but a target of only 3.5 an over was always maintained.  The Taverners fielding was perhaps less sharp than our opponents and the bowling was steady with Gus Mackay 2 for 9 off 3 overs being the pick of the bunch.  Messrs Caddick, Rose, Ball, Malcolm, Salisbury, Smith and Radford all bowled tidily but the Emirates achieved the targets for the loss of only 5 wickets in the 28th over.  The pain of the loss was eased by the magnificent spread of food and drinks laid on by our hosts but the fact remains that this was the club’s 5th defeat in a row at the hands of our old enemy.

Revenge was in the air two days later when the Taverners decided to be bowled and insert the opposition.  4 byes in Devon Malcolm’s first over wasn’t the ideal start and after an earlier wicket, Shafeer with 46 and Arshad Ali with 50, got the run rate up to 5 an over.  The Emirates 30 over total of 156 for 6 seemed to be more than enough on this wicket.  The best bowler was Martyn Ball with 2 for 23.

A change in the batting order didn’t seem to help as Batty and Jones were out by the 3rd over, which allowed Michael Bevan to come in at his normal No. 4 spot and hold the innings together, supported principally by Ian Salisbury with 22, but no-one could get the ball away and the Taverners didn’t get close, finishing on a 117 for 9 in the 30 overs after Bevan holed out on the boundary for 43 and with Arshad Ali picking up 3 for 23 to complete a fine game for him.  Our President, Chris Tarrant, played some part in the game but no body could remember what he did apart from amusing us all with a post match speech.  The silver dhow was once again presented to a beaming and highly satisfied Maurice Flanagan.  So impressed were the Emirates with our performance that the Taverners have been invited back to Dubai in 2011 where the ritual humiliation awaits.

Roger Oakley

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