Fuller’s County League Division One

Merstham 235-8

Mitcham 208 all out

The key to Merstham’s fourth straight victory (in league and cup games) this season was the dismissal of Mitcham captain Dharam Vyas.

The opening batsman scored 104 and looked like he was going to lead his team, batting second, to victory, before he was eventually bowled out by Imran Kakar.

Merstham captain Naveed Saeed said: “Mitcham really did look favourites as their opener made his 100. He kept hitting the boundary and got them off to a flyer. It was a really good game.”

Saeed won the toss and chose to bat on a lovely looking wicket.

Ashar Syed notched 26 before Ed Dawson contributed a sensible 75, with plenty of singles in the innings which gradually was peppered by a flow of fours and sixes.

Joe Shinners, returning this season after a year away from playing cricket, scored a useful 15 before Saeed and Wasil Mohar came to the crease at 134-6.

They put on 80 for the seventh wicket, with Mohar bagging plenty of boundaries in his 55 and Saeed finishing on 18 not out, after Ammar Tahir came in and thrashed 19 off a couple of overs to end the innings after 45 overs at 235-8.

Mitcham lost an early wicket when Asim Jafferi took a great run out, taking the ball one handed and throwing it from mid-wicket to dismiss the Mitcham captain, who was known to be a strong batsman.

Vyas was not in the mood to capitulate, however, and gave the Merstham bowlers the run around before paceman Kakar, a new recruit this season, made him one of his two victims.

Jafferi was the key bowler, taking 5-31 in his eight overs, coming on as first change bowler.

Without a spinner, Saeed turned to Noman Javed’s medium pace and he was also rewarded with two wickets as Merstham wrapped up victory with four overs to spare.

Merstham will hope to continue their winning streak after promotion, when Long Ditton visit Quality Street  on Saturday.

The Saturday fourths were handed victory by Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian, who pulled out in midweek, and then were very narrowly defeated in a friendly at The Ring against replacement opponent Cobham Avorians thirds.

The visitors were asked to field by Merstham skipper Tony Rickards, who was reduced to nine men after one player was called up to the third team.

Nonetheless, the remaining nine managed a spirited 111 off 28 overs on a green, drying wicket, with Will Prior scoring a patient 43.

By the end, Merstham had their visitors - who leant them a succession of fielders on rotation to make the side up to 10 - eight wickets down but their opponents eventually got the required runs after 34 overs. The game proved a great exercise in good fielding and field placing and the bowling was rotated to test players for the coming season.

Having scored at a better run rate, Merstham were left to rue not having two more batsman who could have made the game even tighter.

On Sunday, a combined first and second team lost by six wickets at Brookwood.

Losing the toss and being put into bat, Merstham were indebted to an excellent 80 from Will Prior as they made 142 from 41 overs. Batting for virtually the whole innings, Prior marshalled the Merstham batsmen, with brief support from Jon White, Ben Carter and a cameo from Bill Ash at the end.

Brookwood made a strong start with a hard hitting 50 from their opener, but Merstham's bowlers stuck to their task,  sharing the wickets between Ash, Bharat Sahani and debutant Adam Mell.

Brookwood eventually reached the target with one over to spare in a game played in excellent spirit, featuring a good performance from Joe Rees-Davies and encouraging debuts for Adam Mell and Bill Whalley in addition to the excellent batting of Will Prior.