The Strongroom Nine
Regents Park, 7/21/2012
Strongroom won by 34 runs
Strongroom: 192 [K.Katariya 59*, T.Henderson 40)
Village: 158 (O.Morgans 50)
View the Scorecard
Strongroom won the toss and elected to bat. Opening up with T.Barclay and J. Schneider the Strongroom pair faced a combination of bounce and swing from the Village attack with both succumbing within the first few overs. The wickets brought in T. Henderson and Sumer who with contrasting styles kick-started the strongroom innings. Sumer took part in his usual dance down the wicket and hit a few lusty blows to score 27 while Tom dissected the covers with multiple drives for four while showing great patience on his way to 40. This was the platform Strongroom would need in order to post a competitive total. A few Batsmen got in and found the ball hard to get off the artificial deck so it was left to marvellous innings came from Karan as he finally delivered on his batting potential scoring 59* including 11 of the last over to bring up his half ton in potentially his last game for the 'room.
Tea (for some) was provided by the Official Cereal Bar partner of the 2012 Olympic Games and the rest had to make do with the hub.
With 192 on the board the Strongroom felt confident going into the Village innings. Gabbay (8-0-26-1) bowled his usual tidy spell proving very hard to get away on this wicket as he swung the ball leading Pontin into a lose shot. At the other end Schneider (5-2-0-4) was keen to use the frustration of being bounced out back on the opposition and sent one or two balls whistling past the batsmen's nose. Brought to the crease was Troja who looks dangerous from the off, who with opener Morgans put on 50 for Village guiding them to drinks with a score of 84 and no further loss. However, Within two balls of the break Sumer (8-1-38-2) had removed the expansive Troja (39) who skied one to Tom trying to add to his collection of sixes. It was perhaps a game changing moment as from then on with spin from both ends the runs dried up and the pressure on Village built. The result was some very haphazard running between the wickets, challenging the Strongroom field a few too many times and leading to 3 run outs in 3 overs. It was left to the experience in the side to mop up the tail as Mellor returned (7-0-34-1) with Proctor (0.3-0-6-1) removing the last two wickets and handing Strongroom a 34 run win.
All in all an unusual game with a committed Strongroom side capitalising on some calamitous running between the wickets by Village, who we must thank for lending us a fielder for the majority of their innings.
Written By: J.Rahman
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