Merstham’s Saturday adult teams took two wins and two winning draws this weekend.

It’s not just Noman Javed scoring centuries for Merstham’s first team – now Laurie Nicholson has joined him.
Amazingly, both players pass the 100 mark in the same game, at Battersea in the Surrey Championship Division Five on Saturday, but the Magics could only muster a winning draw as their hosts held out, nine wickets down.

“We lost the toss which was crucial. I wanted to bowl,” said captain Naved Saeed.

Joe Shinners (1) fell early, and new face Haroon Nazir (18), returning to the game after a couple of years, was the second wicket to fall, with the score on 65, but Nicholson (108 not out, including 14 fours) and Javed (119 not out) punished the bowling to spur Merstham to 258-2 from 47.5 overs.

Saeed said: “The openers had batted sensibly, seeing off the new ball and taking care of the extra bounce from one bowler who was 6ft 6in, then once Laurie and Noman were set they started competing with each other.

“Laurie was on 99 and faced four balls in the over to get the century but couldn’t get it and Noman was first to 100.”

Nicholson only gave the fielders one chance, when he was dropped behind, while Javed was smashing the ball into the nearby road for six - he struck six of them, and 11 fours.

“Their captain even put a message on the highlights on PlayCricket about their centuries, which was nice of him,” reflected Saeed. The message read: ‘Superb tons from Nicholson & Javed (which included some beautiful reverse sweeps).

Merstham declared after 47 overs to give themselves 53 to bowl out their hosts. Wanting to win, Saeed set an attacking field, and Shinners soon took a catch off Javed at mid-on.

Battersea put on 52 for the second wicket, with rolls reversed among the Merstham men: Javed caught Tom Grindell (24) off Shinners’ bowling. Scott Bishop showed resistance for 54 runs before becoming the first of Razi Khan’s 4-17 from 13 overs, trapped leg-before.
As Battersea lost wickets in quick succession, Imran Khan and Shinners both took two wickets, as the hosts reached 202-9 after 53 overs, holding out for a draw and five points for second bottom Battersea, with third-bottom Merstham collecting 12, including bonuses, to close the gap on Merrow and Kempton just above them. The No 9 and 10 batsmen made a partnership of 62 in about 20 overs, leaving Daniel McLagen to come in and see out the final over for a draw.

The bonus points and winning draw gave Merstham breathing space in third bottom, above second-bottom Battersea, with Saeed now looking to push up the table.

The second XI took a fantastic victory at home to SinjunGrammarians, bowling out their visitors for 93. Sinjuns made 39 before losing two wickets, after which they struggled to score.

Safyan Aslam took 3-28 from 14 overs (six maidens) Imran Aslam 4-20 from 12 (four maidens) and occasional player Simon Griffin 2-15, Ameer Pasha taking the other.

In reply, Ashar Syed (28) and Mark Beckford (15) were the only two wickets to fall as Manish Patel (34no) and Jason Drewett (11no) completed an eight-wicket victory in the 25th over.

The third XI team couldn’t quite see off Woodmansterne, who chose to bowl. Opener Struan Clark scored 34 from 32 balls and Zeeshan Murtaza an equally quick-fire 25 from 28, but Mohsin Ali outshined them all with a 71-ball 97 (15 fours, one six), much of it in partnership with Patrick D’Mello who was similarly not out, on 54, as Merstham declared on 263-4 from 44 overs.

Woodmansterne were reduced to 51-3, Omer Shuja taking two of them and going on to finish with 4-51 from 11 overs. Three of his victims, in the top and middle order, scored two runs between them, while the other, experienced Nicholas Vagg, had 65 by the time Shuja managed to find a gap to bowl him.

Asim Ashraf took 3-45 while Ali and Murtaza each took a wicket, but the final one wouldn’t fall as the hosts held on with 224-9 from 51 overs.

The fourth team, shorn of some regulars including one pull out through family illness on the day, nevertheless mustered a full XI and took a victory over Sutton, the previously unbeaten divisional leaders, much to their delight and surprise.
Asked to bat, Gopa Nair’s men made an excellent start, accumulating 86-1 from 20 overs, Kashif Noon hitting 24 and Tony Rickards 14, while Ben Snelling top scored with 63.

When Nair entered in the middle order, the platform was set for him to demand a run push towards 200. He finished with 35 not out and Syed Baryaney notched 22.

With wickets in hand, the team suffered a couple of run outs in the final few overs but finished on 212-8, the best fourth team score at the Ring in at least the past four years. The previous best was 190 two weeks ago.

The fourth team in action at The Ring and (top) the score board halfway through Sutton's innings

Sutton must have thought they were on target for victory at 80-2 from 16 overs – Rickards and last week’s spin star Anand Pratap taking those early wickets - but after the first of two scheduled drinks breaks Sutton began losing a succession of wickets.

The visitors were probably not too worried when Avinash Malhotra caught and bowled K Milton to leave Sutton 89-3 from 18 overs. But, before too long, young spinner Matt Lehain had trapped A Rodrigo leg before for 42, and Malhotra, switching from medium pace to spin, had bamboozled two more batsman to complete tight figures of 3-11 from six overs, three of them maidens.

At 103-6, 10-man Sutton suddenly looked vulnerable and began trying to bat out for the draw. Syed Baryenay – and the team - had other ideas. Baryenay took two wickets (2-13 from 7), one caught by Rickards, who claimed the final wicket, courtesy of a catch by Nair to finish the job and spark the celebrations. The final four batsmen each scored nought.

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