North Midd 5th XI v West Harrow 3rd XI

North Midd 5th XI vs West Harrow (Away)
West Harrow 109 from 24 overs
North Midd 111/8 from 24 overs
North Midd won by 2 wickets

Fantastics’s win away (but not without a fright) by 2 wickets. Stand in Skipper Arjun won the toss and inserted West Harrow on a green top. Percy (4 for 25) and Usman (5 for 24) bowled superbly from the start. Percy downhill and with the wind bowled fast and aggressively; Usman harnessed the headwind to bowl an immaculate line and length. Both generated bounce and lateral movement which was too good for the oppo. but great for Alban who took 5 catches on his 5s’ debut behind the stumps. WH struggled to 20 for 6 and then 52 for 8. With wickets tumbling at the other end, WH opener Wasim changed gear and hit a remarkable 74 (next highest score 5) before being caught behind off the first ball of Seb’s spell. Thanks to Wasim WH posted 109 all out in 23.5 overs. Not a bad total in all the circumstances.

After 19 overs the Midd were seemingly in cruise control at 88 for 3. Then some poor batting and game awareness coupled with decent bowling lead to a collapse with 5 wickets going down in short order. Fortunately opener Jonny Gould on his Midd debut kept his head and exercised great judgement - keeping out the good balls and mercilessly putting away the bad ones in a flurry of classic shots. He saw us home in the 25th over finishing on 51 not out. Apart from Jonny only Seb (17) and Morgs (13) made it into double figures.

34 points from the first 5 matches is a good start from the Fantastics who take on local rivals AP in round 6.