Published: Wednesday, 5th August, 2009 9:00am

No luck for Burnham

Cricket

Shaid Nadeem

LADY Luck is not on your side when you are down at the bottom as Burnham are fast discovering.

Bottom of the tabel Burnham were set to beat relegation rivals Wokingham and give themselves hope when the weather intervened and forced it to be abandoned.

The hosts were skittled for a mwasly 127 with veteran spinners Zulfi Butt and debutant Naseer Ahmed doing the damage. Both ended with fantastic figures as Butt's 26 overs yielded 4-39 and Ahmed ended with 22.5 overs, 6-52, earning special praise from the skipper Shaid Nadeem who said: "He bowled very well, he's a very, very wily old off-spinner who has played professionally in Pakistan and was a very nice bloke as well which is good. He has jys come over here and said he would play for us."

Jahngir Zamin was 20 not out and Habib Khan unbeaten on 49 as Burnham reached 76-1 before rain meant that it had to be called off and left the visitors still winless in the league.

"It was absolutely horrible," rued Nadeem. "Just when we manage to get it right the weather doesn't hold up.

"The last three or four weeks, its been little things like the toss or weather - we could have had another 60 or 70 points which would have made a huge difference."

Burnham look almost doomed after that bad luck with the weather as victory was within their grasp and the skipper concedes that something special is required to avoid the drop. He said: "It is looking like Thames Valley cricket next year unless we do something drastic in the next five weeks.

"We had a lot of young lads in and it was enjoyable and good for the future."

Burnham host promotion chasing Gerrards Cross tomorrow (Saturday) in search of a win to give them some hope heading into the climax to the season.