Coconut-shy Nomads suffer after heavens open

Match-winning bowling from Winterthur’s Sanjeev made the difference in a low-scoring league encounter against Nomads on Sunday.

The first-change bowler’s off-cutters and tight line earned him three crucial Nomads wickets (all LBW) just as the home side threatened to close in on Winterthur’s modest 99-run total.

With Nomads on 70 for 5 and the game nicely poised, Sanjeev’s miserly eight-over exhibition of medium-pace on Uster’s coconut matting piled the pressure on the Nomads tailenders.

In the end they had nothing left in the way of defence against Waqar, who grabbed the last three Nomads scalps for a well-deserved five-for, as they tumbled to 78 all out after 33 overs.

Relieved Winterthur skipper Vinat Patel said after the game that he was "convinced" his team could beat Nomads, especially after a half-century opening partnership by Rahul and Raghu that ended with Rahul’s dismissal to a catch at deep mid-on in the 16th over.

But Patel’s faith in his team must have been tested after Raghu was clean bowled by a shooter shortly afterwards and the meat of Winterthur’s batting line-up collapsed. Fortunately, Pip Kirkpatrick and Zay Shalu’s chipped in with a 25-run partnership for the 9th wicket.

Decently, Patel also acknowledged that luck played its part in his victory, since Nomads’ decision to bat second spared Winterthur the teatime cloudburst that effectively washed away any scoring opportunities on an already unpredictable surface.

Patel said: "It was a good toss to lose because of that rain coming in the second half of the game; it really helped us, the ball was keeping low on the matting before it rained and we realised that even if Nomads hit a cover drive or a cut, it wouldn’t reach the boundary on the wet outfield, and not too many of them were willing to go aerial."

Nomads’ vice captain Sangam Subbiramani refused to blame the rain for his side’s defeat in their first league game of the season. "That’s Swiss cricket for you," he said, adding that his team "should have been better prepared". Subbiramani also pointed out that Sajeev’s wicket-to-wicket bowling "made the difference".

But there is no doubt that Nomads is missing key players, such as Swiss National Captain Azeem. He remains stuck in his home country, Pakistan, awaiting a visa to return to Switzerland. Other key players are away or injured.

In the other SCA league east encounter, Royal Zurich skipper Shahzad also refused to blame the rain for his side’s defeat to Olten.

In the game, reduced to 35 overs for each side after at least three interruptions, Royal Zurich won the toss and decided to bat, scoring only 97 all out after 30 overs.

Olten knocked off the target in 25 overs, but only after the loss of seven wickets, confirming Shahzad’s fears that the Royals' total was at least 30 shy of being defendable, despite the low-bouncing surface.

Shahzad, who made 31 before being caught by Murali, said: "Olten bowled well but our players didn’t spend time building an innings; they were trying to hit every ball. I think if you stay a while at the middle you will make runs. But it was a good game and we’ll try not to repeat our mistakes."

In the sole Swiss Cricket Association league west encounter of the weekend, Switzerland Under 19s decided to take the attack to Geneva XI Stars after winning the toss.

The youngsters may have been trying to emulate the Stars’ big-hitting ways, but they failed to master their host’s otherwise friendly batting surface at Onex, accumulating only 73 runs after 28 overs.

Stars’ opening bowlers Monir and Milesh set the pace for the U19s, stifling the run-rate and giving away only 24 runs between them after 11 overs. While Milesh bowled fast for no reward, Monir picked up three wickets and Tariq Khan took two.

Given the tender age of many of the U19s, their lack of success against pace is understandable. But more might have been expected of them against their former team-mate, Stars’ spinner Waleed, whose six over spell yielded three wickets for 11 runs.

In reply, Stars took just 11.4 overs to reach their target. Skipper Ashwin top-scored with 28 before he was caught and bowled by a full toss from Midhun Lal. Owais also made an entertaining 19 before falling to a good catch at square leg.

After the game, which finished early enough to make a 20/20 friendly possible between the two merged sides, Stars’ skipper Ashwin said: "The Under 19s were very happy to win the toss. When we’ve batted first before we’ve scored 405 and 300-odd."

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Results given here are unofficial; for the official results please visit the Swiss Cricket Association website.

Match results: http://www.icc-europe.org/SWITZERLAND/DATABASE/2010/results.shtml

SCA League points table: http://www.icc-europe.org/SWITZERLAND/DATABASE/2010/tables.shtml