Strongroom too strong today
Highgate Wood, 5/9/2020
Strongroom won by 106 runs
Strongroom: 203-6 [I.Azam 112]
London Itinerants: 97
View the Scorecard
Last home game of the first pandemic season. SCC with a seemingly strong side. Captains agreed to a 35 overs match, though their concerns about September late afternoon light conditions never came to pass on a mostly gloriously sunny afternoon. SCC won toss and batted. The pitch soon showed itself to be slow, low and sticky, after a week of showers. Ron clipped a couple of sweet leg side boundaries and looked in good order until undone by the slow wicket and accurate bowling of Nabanjan, and chipped one to mid-on. Gwynn looked to be digging in for another substantial innings until padding up to one that slid on from the opening left arm slow of Dev. Ben also found the slow pitch a challenge, but waited or stretched forward as much as possible and began to get the score moving with a watchful Imran. After Ben skied one to square leg, Otto was undone by one of Hutchinson's induckers and suddenly Strongroom were limping. Fenil joined an increasingly fluent Imran and after a few sticky moments he began to get to grips with the pitch, and ran well once realising that he wasn't going to be able to immediately stroke balls to the boundary. This pair put on a large, match winning partnership in which the run rate kept rising. Imran played superbly, waiting to play the ball very late and picking the right deliveries to attack on the front foot. For a first outing on the sticky Highgate track it was a very impressive century. The Itinerants wicketkeeper (our very own Vinay, offering to help out) did a great job - only 3 byes!
SCC were very confident in being able to defend 203 from 35 overs. Dave P opted to get people into the game and all nine of his bowlers ended up bowling short spells of 2–4 overs. The Itinerants openers (including Vinay) made a lively start, especially against some inaccurate dross from Dave G. After Imran cut short the hard-hitting Bilal, and Vinay skied a sweep/pull against a filthy half-tracker that stayed very low, the scoring rate never really picked up and wickets fell steadily. Everyone else bowled tidily. Godi and Mario dished up the most effective bowling partnership of the day. Arif reaping the reward for a full stump-to-stump attack, while Mario was on a real high with his teasing line, length and wobble. Nishant offered some resistance and Paddy clubbed some boundaries, but the end came inevitably.
The poor quality image below is the moment Imran acknowledged the applause upon reaching his maiden Strongroom century.
Written By: D.Gower
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