Shaid Nadeem - Burnham CC have the desire to beat the drop
By Mark Worsley • Published 5 Jul 2012 14:29
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Burnham CC overseas star Aftab Khan
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CAPTAIN Shaid Nadeem believes that his Burnham side have the necessary desire to avoid relegation from Division One of the Home Counties Cricket League this season.
The newly-promoted club ended a winless streak of six matches on Saturday after a 77-run victory against Potters Bar at the Memorial Ground.
The triumph lifts Nadeem's men out of the division's relegation places with Saturday's trip to Henley (11am) marking the season's halfway point.
Speaking to the Observer, Nadeem said: "Of course we have the desire to avoid the drop.
"This is the pinnacle of non-league cricket, you can't get a better league than this which is why we want to continue to play at this level."
Skipper Nadeem's son Rizwan returned to the first team in superb fashion with an innings of 77, supported by his father's knock of 62 and a quick-fire 44 from Raja Rehman as Burnham declared on 278-9 after three balls of the 62nd over.
The visitors reply got off to a flying start with opener James Kettleborough and Marc Milligan putting on 91 for the second wicket - taking the score to 124-2.
But the Hertfordshire-based side collapsed when Milligan was caught by Naveed Bashir off the bowling of Muddassar Nawaz for 67 and Kettleborough was bowled by Aftab Khan for 62.
Potters Bar were eventually dismissed for 201 after some clinical bowling and some fine fielding. Overseas star Khan took figures 3-66 but the man with the eagle eye was Nawaz who wiped out the batting attack claiming 5-60.
Nadeem continued: "We've been naïve and the most important thing to do is to concentrate on the teams that are near us in the table because that's where we really need to put the effort in and not lose.
"The teams who are at the top are hard to catch in this league so we need to push to get as many bonus points as we can, and if we win that's another bonus."
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