A cutting defeat
London Fields, Hackney, 4/24/2011
London Fields won by 41 runs
London Fields: 161
Strongroom: 120 [D.Gower 65*]
View the Scorecard
Hem and Zorain opened the strongroom attack and from the start both were bowling tight lines, putting doubts in the opener’s minds. Two quick wickets fell as catches were taken behind the stumps and Hem managed to remove another batsman recording an impressive start to the season (7-0-41-2). It was then the turn of the spinners to get into the action and went the dangerous looking Smart was run out on 14, London Fields were 58-4. The run out was a seamless progression from pick up to throw from Ujjal which left the batsman diving in desperation. D.Gower came on for a short spell and managed to remove the dogged resistance of Fernbank (25) who had played very well up until he could not resist one of ‘strike-rates’ flighted balls and was stumped by attentive keeper Jimmy. The spin seemed to work as Sumer and Joe tightened the screws however after drinks Strongroom lost another man as Ujjal fumbled a catch and some gashed his chin. Down to 9 in the field the runs started to leak a little and with three of London fields’ middle order making important contributions Strongroom were left needing to get 162 to win the game, maybe a good 20 more than it should have been.
Tea was a mixture of pasties and scotch eggs kindly provided by Dave P as the opposition do not provide anything.
Jimmy got the Strongroom off to a good start by punishing the bad balls in what was a good pair of opening bowlers. At the other end we lost 2 wickets in quick succession as the probing lines of Utz had Bhasvar caught behind and Zohair bowled. Strongroom resistance came in the form of D.Gower (65*), who hit 13 boundaries on his way to a true captain's knock, showing real class and determination. Unfortunately no team mate stood with him for long enough and once the pitch had removed Jimmy (18) a classic collapse happened with the regular falling of cheap wickets (4 ducks on the scorecard) and we were eventually dismissed for 120.
Written By: Joe Rahman
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