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This was the first game on the UK tour and a friendly warm up for the team.
ZCC UK had a strong team made up of regular and non regular players from different clubs and came together for the first time since 1994.

The ZCC UK Captain, Jimmy Vapiwalla offered the choice to us and we elected to bat to give our players an opportunity to play on the turf wicket.

We started in true ZCC fashion, losing our first two wickets for 20 runs.

Rumi fell to a dubious LBW decision, given by Merwan and Zain to a diving catch in the covers by a 14 year old Middlexes Colts player.

Mahiyar hit the ball and a bump ball went to fielder and Mahiyar walked on his own.

Sarosh batted well and made 57 runs before being made to retire and Khushroo made 76 runs before being retired, with some huge sixes.

Cambeez played his best shot, front foot forward, bat down and got bowled for a golden duck. This was followed by a quick collapse of wickets and we were all out in 36 overs for 193 runs.

ZCC UK started batting well and their first wicket fell at 26 runs. Using 8 bowlers we managed to get them out for 103 runs.

We had two teams in this tournament and each played 5 games. ZCC A making it to the final against 6 times winners chessington.

We batted first and made 43 runs in 5 overs.

Chessington could not take the pressure and could only muster 39 runs.

A true show of team spirit and calm captaincy by Mahiyar saw us win a great tournament.

Khsuhroo and Zain batted amazingly with Khushroo hitting some huge sixes and showing up Chessington’s imported Australian player.

Well done lads…

 

Our second game against tougher opposition, made up of 1st, 2nd and 3rd division players was played at the scenic Wimbledon Cricket ground.

Wimbledon lost the toss and were put into bat and we made good progress in limiting their score to 80 off 20 overs. Wimbledon began to turn the screw and we slacked off in the field and made some mistakes but kept fighting.

They eventually ended their innings at 211 for 5.

ZCC started briskly piling on the runs at a rate of 5 an over, however, the wickets started to fall steadily and only Khushroo was left holding the fort. All he needed was support but we could not provide it. Khushroo eventually succumbed at 72 after some hard big hitting.

Mahiyar, Rumi and Merwan all having got ducks.

Our Third game against Pinner CC in North London was played in sunshine again on a sloping wicket.

The game was a timed game and not limited overs and Pinner won the toss and elected to bat first. They made 136 runs with ZCC fielding really well and great catches by Abisheik, Avinash and Khushroo (3 close catches).

Mahiyar bowled well taking 4 wickets for 34 runs.

ZCC began their batting after a great tea and started in usual fashion with 1 wicket down for zero runs and then 2 down for 3 runs and 3 down for 9 runs.

Time was running out, with 20 overs being bowled from 6.30pm.

Rumi scoring 48 runs and Nusli scoring 36 Not out brought our score to 132 for 8 wickets. We needed 6 off the last over but could not do it.

The game ended in a draw.

Our fourth game, now in Manchester was against Adlington CC and we won the toss and elected to bat first. Strange as it may seem based on our opening performance so far.

We started well making 30 before the first wicket fell and ended up making
238 for the loss of 6 wickets.

Sharukh made 74 runs, batting mainly with a runner (Sarosh and Zain), Ashish Ray making 42, and Rumi making 25 not out.

Pinner started as ZCC normally do by being 1 for 1 and being 68 for 9 I started giving others the chance to bowl. This almost backfired as their number 8 came inand hit a uick 96 runs before being brilliantly caught on the long off boundary by Abisheikh.

They eventually were all out for 183 runs.

There were 3 great catches by Abisheikh and 3 by Avinas of which 2 were in the 2nd slip off Merwan.

Khushro Wadia took 4 for 27 and Merwan 2 for 26.

Great performance all round.

A mention that Khushroo broke his left thumb before this game and cannot bat, but fielded and bowled.

Our fifth game was played on a hot and humid day at Woodbank CC.

They elected to field first, waiting for the international player to come and we started in usual fashion, being 1 wicket for 1 run. Their opening bowlers were bowling well and we were 30 runs after 12 overs.

The patient game, which some of us are finally understanding brought us some valuable runs.

Zain stuck in there making 25 runs off 46 balls, Sarosh bowled by a beauty for Zero.
Cambeez came and changed the game by blasting 24 runs off 10 balls with 6 and 4 fours.

Sharukh and Nusli had an outstanding game to say the least.

Sharukh
50 in 70 balls
100 in 103 balls
108 Not Out
(12 x fours)

Nusli
50 in 31 balls
100 in 64 balls
112 Not out
(13 x fours and 6 x sixes)

This was a great display of batting, with cleanly hit sixes and boundaries and both players are congratulated for their batting and their partnership of 223 runs.

ZCC finished their 45 overs on 303 for 3 wickets.

Woodbank came out on all cylinders firing, and we dropped two quick catches and before we knew I, they were 90 off 12 overs.

We managed to weather the storm and with Mahiyar missing from the lineup for the Manchester games and Sarosh and Avinash injured, Sharukh came on and bowled well, taking 4 for 12 runs.

Khushroo bowled well too with a broken thumb, taking 2 for 31 runs.

Woodbank finished their innings on 123 all out.

 

Our sixth game was played on a warm day with blue skies and a backdrop of trees and hills.

Worsley won the toss and offered the choice to us and we elected to bat first.

Starting off well, we made 24 before losing the first wicket and slowly progressed to 75 for 3 wickets.

Nusli and Sharukh once again out on a good stand of 74 runs and Sharukh was out for 58 and Nusli for 30.

Cambeez played his textbook front foot block, gifting the fielder a catch for a duck.

Abisheikh promoted to number 7 made some quick runs and we ended up on 188 runs for 8 wickets off 45 overs. We got about 40 runs less than I had hoped but they bowled well, having 3 first team players and some 2nd team players in their side. They also had a 15 year old who plays for Lancashire colts.

We had a guest player, Shabaz Sarfraz who opened the bowling with Avinash.

He started bowling at about 75 miles an hour and Merwan and I, fielding in the slips, were hoping the batsman did not get an edge.

They lost their first wicket for 20 runs with a superb ball from Avinash.

We were with out our two opening bowlers, Sarosh (Injured) and Mahiyar (having a romantic holiday in Gay Paris).

One hand Khushroo and Merwan bowled really good spin and kept their players at bay. They were always in with a shout to get the runs, but we fought hard.

Cambeez bowled 9 excellent overs of swing bowling and said he could bowl another 9.

A superb stumping by Zain got the Lancashire colts out off Khushroo’s bowling and ZCC kept up their great fielding- with Sharukh taking a good one handed diving catch and Avinash a good one handed caught and bowled catch.

Avinash bowled 9 overs, 2 maidens, 18 uns for 4 wickets.

This was a really great victory, especially since our bowling was depleted a bit and we fought hard.

 

Our 7th game was played with tired players with many injuries and sore bodies.

We played Chessington who were out to beat us.
We lost the toss and they decided to bat first. We bowled really well, fielded poorly but Abisheikh taking another great catch deep in the field.

We must have handed them 40 runs and they took their score to 185 off 40 overs, which was a gettable score on that pitch.

We failed miserably in the batting and were all out for 138 runs. A bad performance that we hope not to repeat.

Our run of wins is broken and we need to bounce back tomorrow..

 

Our 8th game was played against a GWRCC that was comprised of 1st, 2nd and third team players.

I lost the toss and they offered us a choice which I duly accepted to bat.

We started off well again and with some determination and good batting we managed to get
229 runs for 6 runs off 45 overs.

We started to bowl reasonably well and the batsmen batted well and were strolling on 140 for the loss of 1 wicket.

We carried on but some poor fielding let us down and we gave them at least 12 easy runs in the game which would end up being very costly.

We stuck to our game and managed to get 6 wickets and they needed 4 runs of the last over which they got on the 4th ball.

We struggled in the field today but all in all a good performance but just not good enough for the win.

On August 11th we went on a tour of Lords, home of Cricket which was followed by an an hour of indoor net practice.

The tour was very interesting with lots of cricket history and the ground spectacular.
The view from the Natwest Media centre (Nursery road end) was great, looking over the ground . We also managed to see a game that was being played and Shane Warne walked past us and said “Hey, I know you guys, you are the ZCC team from Canada” and shook our hands and wished us well.