Burnham CC skipper praises all-rounder Ali Dar

Burnham bowler Mohammad Haroon.

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Burnham captain Rizwan Nadeem heaped praise on overseas all-rounder Raza Ali Dar and Asim Zaka for their important partnership on Saturday against Thame Town but stressed he wants to see ‘more hunger and desire in the field’ from his side.

Burnham were on course to restrict their promotion-chasing visitors to a fairly decent target with Ali Dar taking four wickets in an impressive bowling display from the home side, but Thame  picked up the pace to make their way to 260.

“It was a tricky one,” said Nadeem.

“The longer format is broken into sessions and I think in the first session before lunch we were bowling really well – they were 140 after 48 overs but then they came back out for the second session and really picked up and they hit 120 runs from 12 overs.

“That made things harder for us and we started 15-3 but then our overseas (Raza Ali Dar) and Asim (Zaka) put on 101 partnership to steady the ship. But 260 is not easy to chase and the game just slipped away from us.”

Burnham struggled to deal with Oliver Ebsworth-Burland  as the batsman hit an unbeaten 105 from 152 balls, including 11 boundaries to push the Thame run total forwards. His solid knock combined with Hassam Mushtag’s 78 helped ramp up the run-rate. The 260 total was one Burnham were always going to have their work cut out chasing. Ali Dar impressed with bat and ball as he added a 92-run display to his four earlier wickets, striking up a solid partnership with Asim Zaka (53) in the draw as Burnham's chase ended on 190-7.

 “I think at 15-3 their tails were up and they thought they had us” added Nadeem.

“But we showed incredible courage and fight to get back into it and get the draw and those six or seven points might be very important at the end of the season.”

Heading into this weekend's fixture against Chesham on Saturday, Nadeem stressed that he wants to see more ‘hunger’ in his side's fielding. “I want to see more hunger and desire in the field,” added  Nadeem. “Cricket is a long game and anything can happen.

“We found that out this week where we slipped up in the last 12 overs.”