Strongroom back on it!
Highgate Woods, 8/22/2009
Strongroom won by 93 runs
Strongroom: 239 [M.Newkirk 58, J.Rafman 51*]
London Fields: 146 [Arthur 56]
View the Scorecard
‘Twas a beautiful day in the Woods for Strongroom to regain that winning feeling, and regain we did. On a harder and truer wicket than Highgate usually offers, skipper-for-the-day Ollie Moore (30) and Martin Newkirk (58) opened up the batting after the opposition sent us in. London Fields did not succeed in applying early pressure, offering many sighters in the opening 11 ball over. It was after the first bowling change that they made the first breakthrough. Ollie looked very good initially, especially driving and cutting, before playing a loose shot to give Darren the first of his four wickets. John Baddley’s (0) comeback was unfortunately short lived with an edge to the keeper, which brought the hard hitting Mark Talbot (12) to the crease. London Field’s Steve bowled and exceptional 8 over spell and probably did not bowl enough “wicket balls” (full tosses and half trackers) to get more than his two scalps. He did get through Mark’s defence though, but only after a few hard hit boundaries. The following two wickets were nothing less than bizarre. Dave Gower (4) seems to have upset the cricket gods as he continues to be unlucky in his dismissals, his was a half-tracker that hit at least bat, chest and leg before rolling on to the stumps. Debutant Adam Sumner (0) also had a half-tracker, which was well on its way down before hitting the top of middle stump. Shaan Sohail (4) fell to Steve’s pressure trap to be caught the ball before the drinks break.
A lapse in concentration had Martin playing on following drinks after a nervous but solid knock, which left Paddy Ell (26) to take on the unlikely position as the anchor. Paddy put his head down and played some orthodox glances and drives, which left the talented Joe Rafman (51*) the opportunity to open his shoulders and make an excellent half-century, which came fast but with little risk. The highlight would have to be a pull shot that might have even surpassed the magical one our Ken hit a few weeks back. Ujjal Roy (1) did not help his average, but Mike Gabbay (1*) did well to hit and run and give Joe his big half-tonne moment. A very solid performance from Strongroom that showed our batting depth, which has been integral to this season’s success. We bettered our previous high score for the season by two runs, but on an excellent Highgate pitch (oxymoron?) we still had some defending to do.
Tea: Also a solid performance, excellent choice of sandwiches from Ollie, and some exotic Scottish biscuits from the Director, Gower senior.
Our innings in the field was unfortunately the last for Mark Talbot, who is heading back to Adelaide with his fiance, all the best to you Mark. He again put in a typically excellent performance behind the stumps to finish off. Mark led a good fielding effort on the whole, another aspect that let us down last week and that we happily got right this time.
Paddy (0/17 off 5) and Ujjal (3/23 off 8) put the visitors on the back foot early, tight bowling saw the run rate shoot up to unlikely heights but Ujjal’s three polls were essential in stamping out any flames of Field’s success. Napalm’s wickets came from some beautiful outswing, a very sharp catch from Ollie at gully, and an LBW which may have been coaxed out of the umpire by some zealous appealing (but certainly not undeserved). Gabbay (3/32 off 8) bowled very well also, landing good line and length to utilise movement off the pitch and pick up 3 wickets. At this point it would have been nice to zip through the remaining batsmen, but we did allow them some redemption with some looser bowling after drinks. Field’s Arthur took advantage of this to hit a 50 and soften their defeat, before Joe (3/24 off 6.3) put the result firmly beyond doubt with quality finger spin helped with words of wisdom from veteran Dave Gower. Dave (1/39 off 6) also found his rhythm toward the end of his spell, and Ollie bowled typically beautiful looking in swing in the final overs (0/5 off 5).
A very rewarding win for us, which was also important to not have Ken believing he is the difference, not to say we won't be very happy to see (and hear) you back next week Red.
Written By: M.Newkirk
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