Tears, Laughter, Cricket
Thursday, and day two of the Tower Hamlets Cricket Cup. Conditions weren’t ideal for batting with rain the night before and it still being very overcast in the morning. Bow School XI faced Stepney Green in the 10:00 semi-final, 15 over match.
Bow lost the toss and were put into bat with Tamim and Fahman opening. Once again the pair put on a fine display of varied strokes, with the Stepney Green bowling forcing Tamim to play with a straight bat on occasion. Fahman unfortunately lost his balance, getting himself out by hitting his stumps on 4 runs. Next in was Shoaid who faced 6 balls before catching an edge, Zak Crawley style, and being caught behind for a duck. Tamim was joined by Mahfuj who swung valiantly getting 2 runs before later being caught; then in came Samchul. Samchul and Tamim built an innings partnership of 41 runs between them, Samchul getting 11, his best performance with the bat for Bow.
Cup rules meant that Tamim was forced to retire on 30 runs, but a full pull shot on 28 that went for the maximum meant he ended his innings on 34*. The innings was seen out with Aadam on 6* and Simanto 0*. Bow ended on 75/5.
The innings of Stepney Green began well for Bow, with Samchul bowling Stepney’s opening batter for a golden duck on the first ball. Fahman also took a wicket, but Stepney’s No. 3 batter defended his wicket well and slowly racked up 30 runs to retire. Some fielding errors from Bow meant that by the time of the last over to be bowled, Stepney were just 3 short of their target. Tensions ran high as Tamim stepped up to bowl – sadly, with one ball remaining Stepney reached 76/2, beating Bow by the narrowest of margins and entering the afternoon Final.
3rd Place Play-off
Bronze medals and pride were at stake after lunch as Bow were set to face Wapping High School. This time a toss finally went Bow’s way and they took to the field.
Ishaan, Fahman and Tamim shared the wickets, with Ishaan taking an impressive 3 wicket haul off some deadly accurate line and length action; Ishaan was 3-5 (3). Star of the innings, however, was Samchul who not only bowled a maiden over but dived in at cover to take a spectacular catch inches from the ground off the bowling of Ishaan. Wapping ended up on 58/5.
The chase was on, then, and Fahman and Tamim put on a strong partnership of 45, Tamim once again retiring on 30*. Fahman was caught on 15 runs leaving Samchul and Mahfuj to bring it home – that was until Samchul was caught on 7. Lizandro stepped up to the crease and with just one run left to get, victory was in sight. Then disaster again as Mahfuj was confused by a slow ball and was bowled. Aadam came in but Lizandro was on strike at the pavilion end. With all eyes on him, Lizandro took a mighty swing and sent the ball gliding to the boundary to win Bronze for Bow and concluding a fantastic day’s play. Bow ended on 61/3.