Merstham suffer on a wet weekend: Saturday round-up
Merstham suffered a 94-run defeat on a damp track at Quality Street on Saturday, losing their Surrey Championship Division Five match to Maori Oxshott.
The hosts won the toss and thought they had a good chance of winning after restricting the visitors to 160-7 from 50 overs, Razi Khan taking 4-44.
Moari found it difficult to score early on, medium pacer Assad Naeem returning 0-10 from 10 overs, including six maidens. But visiting South African Todd Ryan top scored for the visitors with 51 to give them a good score. Joe Shinners also took 2-22 with the ball.
In reply, eight Merstham players were bowled as they failed to get going with the bat, opener Laurie Nicholson top scoring with 17.
“Us winning the toss was actually more beneficial to them in the end,” reflected captain Nav Saeed “because the pitch didn’t dry out.
“We haven’t got going yet this season. It’s going to be a tough season but from what I’ve seen we can still do well. The standard is a lot higher but I still think we have the talent man for man. They had the better bowlers on this occasion, but there was no batsman that were better than ours.”
The 2nd XI also won the toss and put their hosts, Chessington, into bat. The hosts notched 246-2, Imran Aslam (1-43) and Bobby Sharp (1-28) the only Merstham players to take a wicket, both having their victims caught.
In reply, the top four batsman all made double figures but none kicked on as Merstham were reduced to 86-7, before Will Preston (20) and Hamed Rehman (22), then Imran Aslem (37) offered toughest resistance, batting 8, 9 and 10. Merstham were all out for 171 after 40.3 overs.
The third and fourth XIs would love to bring you inspiring tales of swashbuckling derrying-do. But alas, the third team “won” their game against Wallington on Thursday when their opponents conceded and the fourth team had their game called off on Saturday morning. The Wimbledon Lakeside pitch had not dried out sufficiently after Thursday’s downfall.