Shabbir reflects on bad call that may have cost Burnham title and promotion

If Adnan Shabbir could find a time-machine to take him back into the past, he might be tempted to set the coordinates for around midday on Saturday, when he won the toss and opted to bat against Amersham, a decision which he believes led to the club missing out on promotion to Home Counties Cricket.

Burnham came into the final game of the Thames Valley League Division 1 season with a solid - but not insurmountable - lead at the top of the league, with only Ickenham - in action themselves against Eversley - able to take the title and promotion from them.

What played out for Shabbir, and his side was akin to a horror show as they gambled on batting first in conditions which favoured the batters given the vast amount of rain that had fallen in the week. The wicket was wet, the outfield was wet, yet somehow Shabbir was convinced, and maybe a little persuaded on this by his teammates, to have a bat.

He knew when the first ball popped from the length past the bat of opener Moaaz Ajaz (11) that he’d made the wrong decision. Burnham were dismissed for just 116 runs in 37.4 overs, and, as the wicket dried out - having also been rolled flatter during the changeover - hosts Amersham knocked off the runs comfortably, finishing on 120-5 in 24.2 overs.

With Ickenham winning by 81 runs at Eversley, Burnham were dethroned on the final day of the season and missed out on the title and promotion by just five points.

“I’ve just about moved on after what happened on Saturday,” said the still disappointed skipper.

“Amersham are a good side, but we didn’t get things right. We won the toss, and everyone wanted to bat first. But we knew the conditions were better for bowling than they were for batting. We batted first and it was the wrong move and then we didn’t have the same conditions to bowl at.

“It was difficult to play the first few hours. Especially up against the seam bowlers the ball was popping in different directions. We couldn’t play our shots; we couldn’t do anything. If we had managed to get to 150 or 160 it might have been a different ball game.

“When they came into bat, the wicket had dried out and they used the roller during the changeover. They were still five down, so I think our luck ran out.

“Our batting was the concern, and we’ve spoken about that.

“We’ve been on top for most of the season and to miss out hurts. Ickenham have won the league and are back in Home Counties next season.”

Shabbir will be reflecting most on his decision to bat having won the toss. Had he opted to bowl first he’s confident the outcome would have been very different.

“There was a lot of rainfall during the week, and the wicket wasn’t covered until Friday,” he said. “The ground was wet, and the outfield was wet. There was a concern with bowling first because the ball was going to be wet. We’ve also had problems chasing big totals. Because we’d turned up quite early, everyone was discussing what we should do. We were blindfolded to the conditions which were good for bowling. Instead of bowling we batted, even though we won the toss. It was the wrong decision, and it backfired.

“We knew that Ickenham had put a good total on the board, so we knew it was going to be difficult for Eversley to chase.

“The first ball of our innings, with Amersham bowling, and it popped from the length, and I thought to myself, ‘oh that was a bad move’. Our opening batsmen Moaaz has been in great form, but it took him seven overs to get off the mark. It was so difficult to play on there. There were soft dismissals but if we’d held our nerve and managed to get to 150/160 it might have been different. But it was the wrong move to bat first.”

Despite the lingering disappointment of having missed out on promotion to Home Counties Cricket, Shabbir is still proud of his side’s efforts in their first season back in TVL Division 1. He’s also yet to decide if he’s the man to lead the team into next summer.

“It’s been a brilliant season; I can’t fault the guys too much. Our overseas also got injured in his first match, Mishen and his job was to bowl and bat for us. We were lucky to win some close games and there were also games we felt we should have won that we didn’t win. But all in all, it’s been brilliant. It could have been back-to-back league wins but it wasn’t meant to be. Hopefully we can come back stronger next year.

“In Division 1, there’s a lot of competition. Keeping players will be a challenge and the other clubs will be approaching them. Hopefully they will stick around and we can add on a few more to try and win the league and get back into Home Counties. Division 1 is probably the hardest league to get out of.

“I’m getting old. I was thinking that might be the end of me, that I might move away and play some second team cricket. Managing the first XI and playing first team cricket is quite hard. We’ll see how things go. But as a club we’re on the right path now. But it would be nice to go back into Home Counties and play the highest standard of cricket available. We don’t know who we’ll be up against, who is going to come down. We also won’t have that surprise factor in this league anymore.”