Mughal inspires twos to first victory of the season

EK 2nd XI finally got their first win of 2018 in Tuesday nights Western Cup tie against Weirs at Albert Park.

Skipper Steven Mann finally managed to win a toss and decided that EK would bat first. The innings got off to a great start thanks to some wonderful ball striking from Imran Mughal and some wayward Weirs bowling. Shahid Ishaq was solid at the other end which allowed Imran to open up and play some powerful strokes regularly finding the boundary. The opening partnership was eventually broken in the tenth over with EK on 125! Imran departed for a fantastic 89. Things slowed down after the opening carnage but EK still managed a run a ball to reach an imposing total of 190-5.

Weirs began the chase in good style taking 13 off Mann in the first over but the Captain alongside Blair Meikle at the other end pulled things back for EK and at the end of their four over spells Weirs were behind the run rate on 57-1 off 8 still requiring another 134. Meikle got the wicket when the batter hit a full toss to point where Mughal confidently decided to clap the wicket before actually taking the catch! Then it was time for the spinners led by Guarav Rajmohan who extracted plenty of turn out of the dry pitch which the Weirs batsman found difficult to deal with. Harris Mahmood on his return for EK took three wickets including a fantastic caught and bowled. There was some big hits from Raza who made a quick 60 but it wasn’t quite enough as Weirs finished 32 runs short of the target.

A welcome win for the 2nd XI who have now won one and lost won in the five team group. Next up a week on Tuesday is a visit from group leaders Kilmarnock.