Sumer ends the summer in style
Wray Crescent, 10/16/2011
Strongroom Sumer won by 3 wickets
Strongroom Gower: 262-9 [J.Gower 46]
Strongroom Sumer: 263-7 [S.Katariya 66, Z.Ali 55, Z.Masood 43*]
View the Scorecard
A fairly mental game in that it was mid-October...Christmas was only two months away. But there were still leaves on the trees, the grass was green, and the (low) sun was out in full effect. Also Sumer was horribly hung-over, so it seemed only right to condemn him to 40 overs in the field.
This was effectively an Intra-Strongroom, as Sumer had several Strongroomers in his XI. I won the toss and batted first, looking to take advantage of good light and a hard ball. We were very aware of the danger of Zorain, but openers Mike Gabbay [15] and Das [14] did a really good job of surviving Zorain (especially Mike), and we reached 35 off 9 overs with no alarms. With their departure, James Schneider was looking well set, but edged one behind, and at 76-3 we were needing a partnership. Myself [46] and Harry [24] put on 69 in 13 overs, and did well to progress the score where we were thinking about 200+. However, there followed a quick smatter of wickets, and at 160-6 we really wanted some hefty hitting. Thankfully, Proctor played a lovely, composed innings of 32, and was well supported by Vinayak, Archie and Karan. All those three hit 6s – yet Karan smacked three large straight ones in succession, a fine achievement considering he too was feeling worse for wear. We surpassed my expectations in getting to 262-9. Strongroom Sumer had bowled well, but had let through a shocking 67 extras, and their fielding was ordinary.
We ate our ‘bring yer own’ tea very quickly, to avoid bad light later in their innings.
So, Sumer and Zahid posted 136 in 23 overs – in what was a fine opening stand. Zahid was an orthodox left-hander who started cautiously but who expressed himself more once he got ‘in’, whereas Sumer was his usual mix of unorthodox, shocking and sublime. Sumer made his first Strongroom fifty, hopefully there are more to come. We actually bowled quite well – but just struggled to take wickets. Our fielding however was shockingly bad! Karan and Chris did well to snare 6 quick wickets, including Chris West beautifully bowling Rishabh for just 4. We started to get excited about a victory – however, Zorain (43*) carried on from two weeks ago, and played brilliantly to secure another tight victory for his team. James Schneider took a ridiculous one-handed catch, and Proctor and Schneider both bowled really well – despite their expensive figures. Strongroom Sumer did really very well to hunt down 262 – in what was another great game at Wray Crescent. 525 runs in one day, and a great way to end the season.
Written By: J.Gower
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