North Maidenhead CC's hot streak cools down after Cove draw

Usman Ilyas.

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The June rains seems to have dampened the red-hot early-season form North Maids were in as they picked up just six points in Saturday’s draw with TVL

Division 1 league leaders Cove.

After restricting their visitors to 202-7, North Maids suffered a flurry of lost wickets that

derailed their chase towards the tail end.

Winning the toss, North Maidenhead elected to put their hosts in to bat and Cove put together a solid innings that began with a 42-run opening stand between James Marsh (48) and Nicholas Farr (28).

That partnership was broken after Raheel Zaman (1-35) caught and bowled Farr for the first wicket of the match. Cove however, continued their push

towards a competitive total as Satnley Marisa (41) ably supported Marsh, with both batsmen driving the run count to 118 before Marsh was caught behind by wicket keeper Shahzhad Asghar.

At 118-2, Cove were looking in a commanding position to post a strong total, but the North Maids bowlers kicked into gear. Usman Ilyas (3-60) made life difficult for Cove – too difficult for Marisa, bowling him with the total at 143 – before Sahaan John (2-55) made light work of Jordan Finney (12), after he was dismissed lbw.

Nick Randall (22no) and Tom Readhead (19no) rounded off the innings for Cove after 47 overs, with the total at 202.

Much like the league leaders, North Maids began with an opening partnership of 42 between Fahim Qureshi (33) and Shafiq Khan (12) before the former was caught by Marisa from Finney’s delivery.

A slow trickle of runs continued to come from the host’s top order, but there would need to be a spark if they were to make tracks into chasing down the target after Khan, Ilyas (18) and captain Imran Butt (25) all fell before North Maids could break the 100 mark. John carried his strong performance with the ball through into the batting innings as he drove the total forwards with his 34, but three-wickets in quick succession – all without adding to the 147 North Maids has made – took the life out of the home side’s chase. At 147-8, North Maids dug in, as Zaman (3no) and Faizan Shamsi (1no) made sure that the hosts got something from the game, as they ground out the draw.

North Maids slip to fourth with the draw but are no doubt firm favourites to get back to winning ways for the first time in two matches when they take on bottom-of-the-table side Hayes on Saturday away from home.