The picturesque setting of Newton Linford CC in Leicestershire on the 9th August 2020 was the setting for the first meeting between England over 50s and an Indian representative veterans team U.K. Indians over 50s.
This was the first meeting of these sides since the World Cup in Cape Town which was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Winning the toss and choosing to bat , The England innings got off to a blistering start with Worcestershire Sultan Mehmood blazing a quick 28 off 27 balls with the ball being dispatched over covers until he nicked Viren Patel into the safe hands of Indian keeper Amarjit Lal.
The introduction of the Indian spin contingent managed to quell the scoring rate with tight bowling until the arrival of debutant Craig Wilson at 4 , He proceeded to launch a counter attack and scored a quite Brilliant hundred peppered with 11 boundaries and 5 huge sixes , once he retired out , Stephen Foster showed why he is rated so highly on the international 50s circuit by scoring a quite brilliant 60 off 45 deliveries ably supported by the skipper , Ex England One day player and Gloucestershire all rounder Mark Alleyne and Scott Stratton England managed to put together a fabulous score of 267 -6 off their 45 overs
The Indian bowlers and fielders ably stuck to their task on a good batting track and despite dropping a couple of catches they held together ably supported by canny spells from Viren Patel , 2-40 and tight spells from the spinners including Ex Ranji trophy player Iqbal Khan 1-46 and Kamlesh Desai 1-41
The Indian innings started confidently and the opening pair of Sanjay Beri and Verinder Bhoombla put on a decent opening partnership of 50 at a decent clip , but India couldn't break the shackles and fell behind the run rate and despite losing 2 wickets managed to find themselves at 140-2 and briefly in contention to possibly create an upset but the asking rate was over 8 an over and climbing fast.
Despite a fabulous fighting knock from Iqbal Khan 63 and valuable contributions from Baljinder Mangat 37 the innings fell away due to some excellent death bowling where England squeezed the life out of the Indian innings thanks to exceptional bowling from Mark Alleyne and Stephen foster who bowled very straight and mixing up the pace but the 3 spinners from England Nick Newman 4-33 and tight spells from Dave Burden 3-37 ably supported by Middlesex veteran Rob Nelson making his England Debut really squeezed the life out of the U.K. Indians who lost their last 6 wickets for 27 and folded for a meek 167, The Wicket turned and the spinners took full advantage as the run rate mounted.
This was a very good game from an experienced England Counties side and the U.K. Indians would have learned a lot from this first outing. They will come on strong in the future as they have a lot of potential but lack the experience and match awareness as they had an opportunity at 140-2 before England's quality and nouse shone through
All in all it was a fabulous start to the international summer in a fantastic setting by great hosts at Newton Linford
