Balham battered in Battersea
Battersea Park, 5/21/2011
Strongroom won by 6 wickets
Balham Roamers: 76 [M.Mellor 4-1]
Strongroom: 80-4 [H.Lojhan 40]
View the Scorecard
Strongroom approached the game with a good XI and some confidence after a few games already under belt this season. This positivity took an early knock with the last-minute withdrawal of Sumer and Zorain. Luckily, Harry recruited pal Archie (not quite his real name) and Rahul also stepped into the breach.
Mark lost the toss. The weather was delightful and we wondered if we might be in for a few hours of pain in the dry, dusty, fast outfield. The first few overs didn't entirely dispel the concern - although Rich and Tom bowled well enough and beat the bat frequently, the edges and extras flew around and Roamers were off to a 5-runs an over start. Then, all of a sudden the Roamers' wheels came off, initiated when Rich induced a chipped drive to Rahul at cover.
Rich and Tom had bowled probing opening spells, but Mark's captaincy was characterised by mostly fairly frequent bowling changes to keep the attack fresh and people in the game. Joe replaced Tom and took a little while to drop into his best rhythm, but the Balham batsmen had missed their chance before they realised it was there and they found it extremely difficult to get any runs off Joe (bowling to a very tight field). He deserved more than his 2 wickets, and could have gone for less than 9 runs. At the other end, Ujjal replaced Rich and also took a couple of overs to get going, but soon had control of a little bit of swing and kept the batsmen both searching for runs and fighting to keep their wickets intact.
Rahul replaced Ujjal and bowled a superbly tight spell off a shockingly short run. Jimmy behind the sticks and then the outfielders soon realised that Rahul was harrying as well as hurrying the batsmen so kept returning the ball to him as quickly and directly as possible to allow him to race through his overs. His last over was timed at 1 minute 40 seconds, and that included a wide! He was unlucky not to have taken a wicket and kept the pressure on perfectly. Captain Mark came on after Joe's spell and mopped up the last four wickets in a ruthlessly efficient display of yorkers to finish with 4 for 1. Chris West came on for one over that included one bad ball and a good steepling caught-and-bowled, a welcome recovery after last week's meltdown. Balham were all out for 76, scored at a remarkably low rate for a quick-scoring pitch. Apart from a couple of blips, the fielding had been very good. Chris West worthy of special mention as a Hem-a-like single saver in the covers and at midwicket.
Tea: adequate mixture of freshly made sarnies and purchased pies, cakes, biscuits etc.
So, Strongroom were confident and expected a comfortable chase if things didn't start off disastrously. Jimmy and Harry set off at a stunning rate. Harry looked in great touch, nicely balanced and waiting before pouncing with chips, lofts and flicks. Jimmy (mistimed pull) and Dave (driving over a yorker) got out despite looking to have got off to comfortable and positive starts. Rich joined Harry to form the creakiest-knees batting partnership - they walked a few singles and kept the boundary count high. Eventually Harry played one too many aerial shots, and Rich edged one of the day's few lifters behind. Chris and Archie saw us home with flashing blades, Strongroom blazing to their 77 target in less than 12 overs.
BR had clearly had one of those days with the bat, but Strongroom still felt that they had the team and performance to have beaten a much better home batting display.
Written By: D.Gower
|