Bashith the Destroyer
Burgher Ground, Havelock City, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2/27/2016
Brumby's won by 202 runs
Brumby's International PVT: 361-4 [B.Marikar 107*, S.Jainudeen 54*, D.Lakmal 53*]
Strongroom: 159-9 [M.Nicholson 51]
View the Scorecard
The Strongroom crew assembled themselves for an excellent breakfast at Hotel Sapphire, in good spirits, having only arrived the previous afternoon / evening. Our tour bus pulled into the Burgher ground, and as we stepped out we immediately felt the humidity and oppressive heat (35c) and knew we’d be in for a tough debut match on Sri Lankan soil.
Dave G was appointed captain, in the absence of Dave P (and Jules and Guy), and promptly won the toss. He chose to field, thinking it would be good to get everyone on tour immediately into playing cricket, and maybe to avoid fielding in the afternoon. This might have been a mistake. Tim’s first ball was smashed straight back over his head for a one-bounce 4. This set the tone for the rest of Brumby’s innings, as they went on to amass a huge total of 361-4. We lacked control from the start and never managed to claw it back. Some rusty bowling under great pressure brought too many wides. Chief destroyer with the bat was Bashith Marikar (107 retired), an elegant and ruthlessly efficient first-class batsman in Sri Lankan domestic cricket. Ujjal achieved some accurate inswing in his initial spell, in his first Strongroom appearance since the India tour 3 years ago, but he tired and overall no-one was spared in the onslaught (except Joe, who achieved a modicum of control - though once even he got planted onto the roof of the 5-storey pavilion). Noticeably, several of our bowlers were hammered for a 6 from the first ball of their spell. On his Strongroom debut, Harberton’s Ian Hutchcroft’s first 3 balls (full tosses) were dumped for giant sixes, though he came back well and could have picked up a couple of wickets off his next 9 balls.
Essentially we spent their innings chasing leather in extreme, head-throbbing heat. It was brutal. Along with heavy Colombo traffic on one side of the ground, and a noisy PA system from a football match on the other, this made for a chastening introduction to Sri Lankan cricket! At least three chances were put down (one bursting through Joe’s hands into his face), but also some good catches were made in the deep by Grant, Dave G and Jon, and Ian put in a good ground-fielding display in the deep that belied his years. Unfortunately 91 runs were smashed off the last 10 overs as we wilted in the heat, and this firmly put the game beyond our reach (this appears to be the highest total ever recorded against Strongroom).
Tea: A relative of Asif or Nafeez (sorry - forget which) had prepared some tasty roti, along with sandwiches. We also downed litres of water in a desperate attempt to get some fluid passing through our kidneys and into our shrivelled bladders.
In reply, we noticed that the opening bowlers came off 30-yard run-ups, with the keeper and 4 slips positioned a good 25 yards behind the stumps. This was not what we were accustomed to. Only Mitch (51) showed the requisite skill required to respond to this quality of pace bowling. Vinay was flashy (21) but temporarily effective, but otherwise our middle order were routed by high-quality finger and wrist spin - too much for addled brains and techniques honed on the Highgate pudding against medium pace dobblers. However, we managed to avoid humiliation, and arrived at our 40 overs with one wicket in-hand (Ian scoring his first SCC run while holding up one end). Tim Moore struggled to score against the spin, but displayed good application and a calm mind in his tidy, undefeated innings (36*).
The Sri Lanka Cricket Board authorised umpires we hired were excellent. Despite the heat we were instructed to tuck our shirts in at all times except when bowling an over.
We had a quick turnaround after the game, as we boarded the tour bus and headed south to Mirissa. Feeling somewhat exhausted and wondering whether we could refresh in time for the next game the next day...
Written By: The Brothers Gower
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