Arsalan Abass starred for the third week running as Merstham clinched a vital victory over leaders Merrow in the Quality Street club’s bid for a third consecutive promotion.

Merstham still hold the second promotion spot in the Fuller’s Brewery League Premier Division, but are now just 13 points behind Merrow.

Opening batsman Abass carried his bat with a magnificent 102 not out as Merstham set a target of 217, bowled out in 45 overs.

Noman Javed (21) and number 11 Imran Kakar (33) were the only other players to score more than 20. Kakar’s partnership of 50 with Abass was the best of the innings. Peter Scott took 5-46.

In reply, Abass also performed well with the ball, taking 3-31 in nine overs.

“What an innings and what a performance,” purred captain Naveed Saeed of Abass. “He won us the match on his own.”

Scoring runs wasn’t a problem, but Merstham lost wickets regularly. “At the end Arsalan kept batting really well and was farming the strike and we were still well short of runs when Imran [Kakar] came in,” said Saeed.

“Arsalan struck a lovely reverse sweep to reach his 100 and Imran’s 33 included some massive sixes which changed the momentum of the game by getting us over 200.”

Abass’s bowling included taking the wicket of opener George Trueman, the Australia overseas player, trapped leg before for 44 when he looked set to build a big innings. That left hosts Merrow on 81-3.

Andrew Keeble was 62 not out at the close, but a fantastic three wicket haul from Damien Barnett (3-10 from four overs) before a side strain finished his match early, and 3-46 from nine from Kakar secured victory in the 43rd over, with the hosts on 197.

“Taking their overseas player’s wicket changed the momentum in our favour again and this was the most mentally challenging game I’ve ever played. They kept coming back at us.”

Merrow’s No 10 and 11 both put up fights before Kakar and Suliman Younis took the final wickets with Merrow on 197.

Lingfield in third, lost to Sinjungrammarians whom Merstham host on Saturday.

 

The second team secured promotion and have a 47-point lead over Deando Ruxley at the top of the Surrey Championship 2nd XI Division 5 after an eight-wicket win over Maori Oxshott.

Asking Maori to bat at Quality Street, they dismissed their visitors for 78 in the 34th over thanks to Safyan Aslam’s 5-25 from 10 overs, 5 of which were maidens. Imran Aslam and Hamed Rehman took two wickets each and Jawad Riaz the other.

The run chase took 23.5 overs.

Merstham’s third team suffered defeat by a narrow margin, having invited leaders Battersea to bat at The Ring. Jon Coleman took 2-38 and Asim Ashraf 3-14 as the visitors were restricted to 168-8.

In reply, Merstham were all out for 165 with Ben Carter scoring 26, Rory Crouch 22, Joe Connolly 35 and Coleman 21.

The fourth team bowled out Battersea for 96, impressing Mark Robson who had stepped down from the third team to captain them and keep wicket. The Ali brothers, Hamza and Hasan, took seven wickets between them, Gopa Nair two and Callum Letts the other.

But old habits die hard and they failed to chase a low score, being out for 70 with Kashif Noon (12) and Robson the top scorers.