Strongroom win vital toss...and the match with it
Battersea Park, 7/10/2010
Strongroom won by 88 runs
Strongroom: 277-4 [J.Hall 73*, M.Newkirk 58, T.Henderson 46]
Balham Roamers: 189 [Sharp 42]
View the Scorecard
Strongroom won this game through playing some good cricket after winning a crucial toss on a blazing day. We were especially pleased with the toss because we had only 10 men, one of whom was Paddy who hadn’t been to bed until 5am. So, Paddy was propped up in the shade drinking water while Dave and Martin forged a solid opening platform. Balham toiled in the sun on a lightening-fast, brown baked outfield. The pitch always kept the bowlers interested but the pace of the wicket and outfield, and the fairly short boundaries kept the runs ticking along. Dave and Martin fell in consecutive balls as they tried to accelerate in the face of the first bowling changes. Jon and Jimmy snuffed out the potential collapse and saw us through to a 20 overs drinks break (99-2) with Roamers’ Carter bowling a very miserly few overs and beginning to slow the run rate down. The next 10 overs (20-30) were always likely to prove important – dictating whether we could push on to 250+ or whether loss of wickets would pull us back. As it happened, Jimmy (in a rich vein of form) and Jon plundered about 90 runs, rarely looking troubled and striking several handsome boundaries. Jon’s surprise demise brought debutant Tom to the wicket, fresh from Adelaide for his first innings for several years. He slotted in comfortably and showed pedigree in cruising to a flowing half-century. We were certainly happy with 278.
We were prepared to be patient in our fielding response, and it came as no great surprise to see the ball flashing to the boundary as often as it beat the bat early on. Paddy and Ujjal both generated good pace and the only real concern was the failure to stamp out wides. Paddy’s breakthrough saw the first of several tidy catches as the ball raced off the open face to deep backward point. Jon made early bowling changes to try and find some control of the run rate as Balham raced away at about 9 an over. The combination of Martin and Mike unlocked the door to the middle order. Mike bowled the best spell of the match and one that secured victory – 8 overs of metronomic probe (following 40 overs of umpiring). At the other end, Martin was fast and nasty and picked up three excellent wickets, the pick of which was a great slower ball in response to consecutive, hard-hit boundaries. Strongroom sensed the hard work had been done, but some loose slow full tosses from Chris and Dave were seized upon by Sharp and briefly threatened to make us sweat. Dave eventually picked up wickets after having had 6 catches dropped off his bowling in 6 overs across two games. At the other end, Jon bowled a much tidier spell to follow on from and complete Mike’s good work.
Written By: D.Gower
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