Strongroom hungover by the Hangovers
ITM University, Gurgaon, Delhi, India, 3/2/2013
The Hangovers won by 190 runs
The Hangovers: 330-9 [Sanal 101, Vaibhav 111*]
Strongroom: 140 [J.Hall 47]
View the Scorecard
Strongroom made the most of their day off on Friday March 1st, and Ujjal arrived in from Hong Kong - albeit with zero cricket under his belt since his last game for Strongroom over some two years ago!
For this match we headed south west of Maharani Bagh, towards an area called Gurgaon, just outside the administrative zone of Delhi itself. The ground was situated in the impressive ITM University campus, and as it was a 40 over affair, we started in bright daylight at around 4pm.
Dave P lost the toss, and so The Hangovers obliged by batting first and totting up no less than 330-9 in their 40 overs! Their total featured two centurions, and some pretty impressive batting. They were a nice bunch of guys, very friendly, but just a bit too good for us on the day! Our bowling figures made for some pretty grisly reading. Although Andy received a bit of a battering in his first spell, he came back for a much-improved second spell, focusing on a strangulation line and length. Jimmy executed a smart stumping, and Ujjal bowled very well considering his lack of match cricket. However, none of our bowlers achieved much movement with the ball, in the air or off the surface. Halfway through their innings we paused as the twilight induced the officials to switch on the giant floodlights, and so we entered the night realm!
Guy Wilson incurred a nasty injury to his finger, trapping it between a cover-drive and his knee as he went down to collect it. Basically it burst open, and he had to leave the field to strap his digit together. In the latter stages of the innings, he actually returned to take a catch, gritting his teeth through the anticipated pain.
So there we were. 331 to win!
Sadly, we folded rather limply to 140 all out, and so lost by 190 runs. Apart from Jimmy (47), no one else contributed any significant runs. Olly and myself were both cleaned up by some whippy inswing from Yuda, but Joe and Ujjal both looked good at the crease. The Hangovers bowled and fielded very well, and we were basically outskilled in this encounter.
However, all was not lost! Later on that evening we ate some fantastic Indian food, upstairs at the Ashoka restaurant, and amongst the tasty food, beer and noisy conversation, our earlier shortcomings were quickly forgotten.
Written By: J.Gower
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