Saturday 29th August 2015 Match Report, Lancashire Lions Vs Somerset VICC
TheBlindJournalistreports from Manchester.
Sponsored by SoundSphere Magazine.
On a day where the Red Rose recorded a historic Twenty20 cup triumph, the Lions weren’t going to be missing out on creating their own piece of history as they hosted Somerset VICC in the BCEW National League at Our Lady’s High School.
Somerset won the toss and put Lancashire into bat first. With opener Usman Afridi already having set new club records by knoching up his maiden centuries in back to back matches in the BBS cup 133 not out against Sussex and 171 against league champions Warwickshire. Another high score seemed imminent but what unfolded throughout the course of the day will likely never be repeated in blind cricket on these shores again.
Usman wasted no time as he took control of the innings by dispatching the first over for 21 runs and soon bringing up the 50 run partnership with Sheraz Chohan, the latter departing cheaply. Usman continued to smash the bowling all around the ground without taking any risks in the process, bringing up his third century in another productive partnership with Captain Martin Robson. The drinks break brought no restbite as Wasim Afridi joined Usman in the 14th over. Wasim immediately got himself into the groove with some elegant looking drives and death touches to send the ball to the boundaries. With the field ran ragged Usman brought up his double century and took the total over 300 whilst Wasim reached his half century in no time.
With continued excitement from the bench as the team surpassed their previous best highest team scores of 272 and then 321 and as information started to be relayed of runs needed to break both the individual and team highest scores, new records looked in sight.
It was time to stand and deliver as Usman brought up his 250 with his first six of the innings with some phenomenal batting with pin point dissecting of the field as he took the run rate over 15 by taking the final 5 overs at almost 20 an over.
In the 27th over Usman Afridi became a record breaker as he finished on 283 not out off just a 127 balls in which he hit 41 4’s and a six to set a new British Record for the highest individual score and in the process posting the highest domestic team total of 427-2 declared, with Wasim Afridi contributing 67 runs in an unbeaten partnership of 237 for the third wicket.
Usman demonstrated the kind of skill, understanding and maturity that is shown by experienced international cricketers in the top echelons. Since making his debut in 2013 along with Wasim for the development side, it wasn’t going to be long before they both made their first team debuts and surely the Lions couldn’t have asked for a better first season from the pair this year.
The tea break provided some restbite but the task ahead of under strength Somerset became even more daunting when Muhammed Janaid, the left arm fast prolific bowler removed the top order to finish with 3 wickets, alongside Captain Martin who took two wickets. The first being a stunning low catch by Tahseen Sabir who dived across the pitch to take the ball inches from the ground. Sheraz continued to chip in with another wicket as he clean bowled a defensive middle order batsmen. Tahseen claimed another catch as he sharply moved to take a deflection of Martin’s head and then forced the final batsmen to chop on and help skittle Somerset all out for just 46 in the 14th over to hand the Lions a record winning margin of 381 runs.
This victory leaves the Lancashire Lions a draw away in the final game against Sussex to guarantee a second place finish in the National League with a Twenty20 finals day to look forward to on the 19th September.
TheBlindJournalistreports from Manchester.
Sponsored by SoundSphere Magazine.
On a day where the Red Rose recorded a historic Twenty20 cup triumph, the Lions weren’t going to be missing out on creating their own piece of history as they hosted Somerset VICC in the BCEW National League at Our Lady’s High School.
Somerset won the toss and put Lancashire into bat first. With opener Usman Afridi already having set new club records by knoching up his maiden centuries in back to back matches in the BBS cup 133 not out against Sussex and 171 against league champions Warwickshire. Another high score seemed imminent but what unfolded throughout the course of the day will likely never be repeated in blind cricket on these shores again.
Usman wasted no time as he took control of the innings by dispatching the first over for 21 runs and soon bringing up the 50 run partnership with Sheraz Chohan, the latter departing cheaply. Usman continued to smash the bowling all around the ground without taking any risks in the process, bringing up his third century in another productive partnership with Captain Martin Robson. The drinks break brought no restbite as Wasim Afridi joined Usman in the 14th over. Wasim immediately got himself into the groove with some elegant looking drives and death touches to send the ball to the boundaries. With the field ran ragged Usman brought up his double century and took the total over 300 whilst Wasim reached his half century in no time.
With continued excitement from the bench as the team surpassed their previous best highest team scores of 272 and then 321 and as information started to be relayed of runs needed to break both the individual and team highest scores, new records looked in sight.
It was time to stand and deliver as Usman brought up his 250 with his first six of the innings with some phenomenal batting with pin point dissecting of the field as he took the run rate over 15 by taking the final 5 overs at almost 20 an over.
In the 27th over Usman Afridi became a record breaker as he finished on 283 not out off just a 127 balls in which he hit 41 4’s and a six to set a new British Record for the highest individual score and in the process posting the highest domestic team total of 427-2 declared, with Wasim Afridi contributing 67 runs in an unbeaten partnership of 237 for the third wicket.
Usman demonstrated the kind of skill, understanding and maturity that is shown by experienced international cricketers in the top echelons. Since making his debut in 2013 along with Wasim for the development side, it wasn’t going to be long before they both made their first team debuts and surely the Lions couldn’t have asked for a better first season from the pair this year.
The tea break provided some restbite but the task ahead of under strength Somerset became even more daunting when Muhammed Janaid, the left arm fast prolific bowler removed the top order to finish with 3 wickets, alongside Captain Martin who took two wickets. The first being a stunning low catch by Tahseen Sabir who dived across the pitch to take the ball inches from the ground. Sheraz continued to chip in with another wicket as he clean bowled a defensive middle order batsmen. Tahseen claimed another catch as he sharply moved to take a deflection of Martin’s head and then forced the final batsmen to chop on and help skittle Somerset all out for just 46 in the 14th over to hand the Lions a record winning margin of 381 runs.
This victory leaves the Lancashire Lions a draw away in the final game against Sussex to guarantee a second place finish in the National League with a Twenty20 finals day to look forward to on the 19th September.
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