Scintilla humble league leaders Ford

Emdad Rahman

Essex County Cricket League Premier Division leaders Ford Cricket Club were put to the sword as Scintilla Cricket Club put together their best performance of the season to claim the points at Ford Sport & Social Club.

Scintilla won the toss and chose to bat first on an exemplary pitch. Ayaz Karim’s men used their full quota of 45 overs to score 338/6. Ishaq Shawn was the stand out performer at the crease, thundering 133 from 83 balls. All rounder Abul Hasib added 63, with Malaysian star Ahmed Norharif Hamidon scoring a further 42. Zahied added 23, leaving Zahed Mamun and Sajal Rahman not out with 19 and 16 respectively. Noman took 3/64, and Mirza 2/68 for Ford.

After the interval Ford proved to be dogged opponents, and it was not hard to see why the Ilford based team has led the league. Despite chasing such a large total, the hosts refused to back down. Nadeem scored 68, Abbas 51, and Siraj 39 as Ford were bowled out for 252 from 44.2 overs. as Scintilla won by 86 runs.

For Scintilla, Aaman took 1/47 (5 overs), Hassan 2/11 (9 overs), Sajal 3/31 (7.1 overs), Hasib 1/30 (8 overs) and Ayaz 1/23 (7 overs).

Scintilla captain Ayaz Karim said: “It’s been a tough seven days since our last game and the team has shown true character to come here and win convincingly today. We have immense respect for Ford CC and they are leading the league on merit. Apart from beating Ford I was very pleased with the way we clicked today. Norharif and Zahied set the tempo, Shawn and Hasib notched up almost 200 runs and Zahed and Sajal stayed in till the end. We now need to concentrate ahead and cement their form, which this team is very capable of doing. Continuity is very important and the team needs to bed in and put in a run of performances.”

Man of the Match Ishaq Shawn added: “The batting pitch was in excellent condition. I was fortunate to be supported so well by my team mates and very happy that we have won here today.”