Shaid Nadeem - Burnham CC are not relegation favourites
By Rob Stevens • Published 12 Jul 2012 14:08
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Challenge: Captain Shaid Nadeem wants his Burnham side to push on up the Home Counties Division One table.
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SHAID Nadeem has challenged his Burnham CC side to prove the notion of them being favourites for relegation wrong when they make the trip to Oxford on Saturday.
The Memorial Ground-based side landed the Home Counties Division Two West title last summer and got the current campaign off to a flyer with victory over Oxford on the opening weekend.
But Nadeem's men had to wait until late June for their second league win - beating Potters Bar by 77 runs - and remain third from bottom in Division One after last weekend's trip to Henley was washed out by torrential rain.
Nadeem told the Observer: "It's a shame it was called off - it's just one of those things.
"The umpires rung up at 8am which was good of them because we normally leave at nine and we've got a few players that have to do a bit of travelling."
Burnham beat basement boys Oxford by 39 runs in May thanks to an innings of 55 from Obaid Ullah Sarwar and a five-wicket haul from overseas star Aftab Khan (5-38).
But skipper Nadeem is wary of the improvement in the Oxford side since their last meeting, he continued: "Apparently they've got a few new players in and have been giving sides a tough game lately.
"We're not going to be negative in any way, we're going to go out and give it our best shot and see what happens.
"We were a bit naive to start with but everybody now knows if they can improve 10% we can compete."
Nadeem added: "We played well the week before (against Potters Bar), everyone chipped in and played their part and it gives us a bit of confidence.
"We are still heavy favourites to go down but it would be nice to prove a few people wrong."
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