Slow wicket = Slow game
Highgate Wood, 7/2/2011
Malgudishire CC won by 14 runs
Magludishire CC: 148 [Z.Masood 5-13]
Strongroom: 134 [V.Rahman 4-30]
View the Scorecard
We were supposedly down to play against Celeriacs, but due to their recruitment problems they only fielded 2 players, and so drafted in 9 from another club. They were called ‘Magludishire CC’, so in effect we played that team. I lost the toss, and they chose to bat first on a decent looking surface. However, it turned out to be the lowest and slowest Highgate track I have ever played on! This in effect coloured the entire game, creating a somewhat ‘flat’ encounter for both sides.
Zorain took an early breakthrough, but Karan struggled to find his rhythm from the shed end, suffering a few bludgeoned boundaries as they looked to set an aggressive tone for the innings. However, Joe Rahman introduced some calm, and a couple of wickets, one falling to a rare catch by myself at long off! Magludishire were motoring along quite nicely, at around 60 off 10 overs. Sumer also ‘got some tap’ as he never really found his length. I bowled 6 overs from the shed end and located an annoying length which helped stabilise the run rate, and we gradually managed to both slow down their scoring and grab occasional wickets. Crown (33) played very well, and displayed good nous on what was an irritatingly slow surface. The innings was then brought to a dramatic conclusion as Zorain delivered a quadruple-wicket-maiden, including a superlative hat-trick. The first was a square-drive nicely schnaffled by Schneider at point, and the next two were clean bowled in dramatic fashion. Magludishire finished on 148, a total we felt confident about overhauling.
Tea: Another quality Muswell hill bakery offering.
Rather disastrously, both our openers fell in quick succession (D.Gower and J.Schneider), and were soon followed by Jerome Armit, mistiming a long-hop to square leg. The track was by now proving startlingly slow, and their dibbly-dobbly attack was effective in maximising this. Myself (26) and Karan Khangura (28) then compiled the only partnership of note, as we set about steadily rebuilding the innings and navigating our way to their total. However, with the final 10 overs in sight we were just starting to open up when I dragged a wide long-hop onto my stumps, and Karan followed soon after. Thereupon we collapsed, and fell 13 runs shy of their total. There was some spirit shown though by both Sumer and Chris. Sumer walked down the track and slammed some heavy boundaries, causing some momentary panic in their ranks, and Chris simply hit hard and straight. However, it was too little too late, and we were very disappointed to lose a game we should really have won.
Written By: J.Gower
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