Abass dominates as Merstham win: Saturday round up
Merstham’s victory over Frimley was the Arsalan Abass show, as the all-rounder took five wickets and scored 64 to push the Magics closer to leaders Merrow.
Naveed Saeed’s side sit 25 points behind Merrow, who they face on August 6, while third place Lingfield (who have beaten Merstham twice) sit four points behind in third place in the Fuller’s Brewery League Premier Division. The top two gain promotion.
“We took a bit of time getting the first wicket, but once we got the first it was a bit of a canter,” said Saeed. “The opening two bowlers bowled well enough, but we turned to spin very quickly.”
Openers Suliman Younis and Noman Javed finished with 0-19 from 7 and 0-23 from 8, but spinner Abass’s spell of 14 overs reaped 5-30 and four maidens. He was well supported by Damien Barnett whose 4-19 from 10 overs also returned four maidens. Imran Kakar took the other.
Opener David Carroll top scored for the visitors with 36 - caught by Andy Rivers off Barnett - while none of the other batsmen got past 20. The visitors were all out for 100 in 41.1 overs.
Abass didn’t hang about after tea as Merstham knocked off the runs in 16.2 overs, notching 64 not out with fellow opener Joe Shinners (28 not out).
The game was over by 5.30pm. “Our game against Merrow is literally the game of the season,” commented Saeed. “It’s an overs game [without the ability to draw] so it’s winner takes all. They are unbeaten as well, but we will be really up for it.”
Ripley are this weekend’s opponents.
Laurie Nicholson, star of the third team with an unbeaten 162 last Saturday, took his place in the second team and scored 38 as Richard Feist’s men took another victory at the top of the Surrey Championshp 2nd XI Division Five, where they have a 37 point lead over Deano Ruxley, their latest victims.
Deando were asked to bat and scored 197-8 from 49.2 overs, Abid Khan scoring 61 and Bahzad Mahmood 81. Imran Aslam took 4-30 from 10.2 overs, taking his tally to 20 for the season. Safyan Aslam also has 20 for the season after taking 1-62 from 15.
In reply, Merstham had 45 on the board when Jason Drewett was caught on 29 (putting him past 300 for the season) and Nicholson’s 38 was a top score. Rob Harris (26), Manish Patel (22) and Hamed Rehman (32) before Richard Feist (6not out) and Neil Maplesden (1 not out) got the second team over the winning line with four balls left, after 50.2 overs.
The third team lost the toss and found themselves bowling, which hosts Trinity soon regretted, being all out for 110 in the 32nd over. Asim Ashraf took 2-19 and Zeeshan Mustafa 3-14. Callum Letts took 2-1 and Ben Carter 2-5 late in the innings.
Rory Crouch led the run chase, opening with 26, a top score shared with James Gannaway, who was 26 not out with Jack Letts (25 not out) the other still standing at the end, with Merstham winning by five wickets.
On a patchwork surface at The Ring, the fourth team were asked to bat by Trinity and survived their maximum 47 overs but for only 115 runs. Hamza Ali top scored with 35 and also ran out his brother Hasan. He then put on a 50 partnership with Omer Shuja (12). Extras was next top scorer with 27.
Will Prior, Hasan Ali, Hamza Ali and Dilhan Jayamanne all took a wicket each but the visitors won in 30.4 overs.