Strongroom defeat North London replacement oppo
Highgate Wood, 7/28/2012
Strongroom won by 12 runs
Strongroom: 140-6 [D.Gower 50]
Arkley CC: 129-6 [B.Candy 48]
View the Scorecard
New opposition Arkley CC stepped in at short notice after Gardeners had to cancel. Arkley said they also played on a low, slow council pitch so they weren't too horrified by a dry, cracked and low, slow Highgate wicket that produced a tight, low-scoring game. This was not one for the T20 fan, the game producing a total of 270 runs and 12 wickets in 80 overs.
Strongroom won the toss and batted. Tom soon lost his wicket in cruel fashion as he tried to pull a low ball outside leg stump but only managed to drag it onto his stumps off the back of the bat. Strongroom's innings was up and running quickly (19 off the first 3 overs) but the run rate plummeted as Arkley found their line and length (and I came into bat) and they slowly strangled the innings. In response, Rich played as watchfully as I can remember and toughed out a grim but important partnership with me of about 50 in 20 overs. After Rich was bowled trying to pull a low one that proved to not quite be outside off stump, Sumer, in his last match as a London resident, sadly slapped a high full toss to mid-on. The innings was in danger of falling apart as well as stalling. Jimmy came in and played more fluently than anyone on our team in a run-a-ball innings that got us up and ticking again. Sadly I ran him out in a yes-no cock-up off a not-quite misfield. I then tried my best to up the run rate but I and our 6 (Joe), 7 (Mike) and 8 (Riaz) all found it very difficult to time any big shots. We hit only seven 4s in the whole innings, and my 50 came off 106 balls. Not much of a spectacle. Still, we did scramble 60 runs in the last 10 overs and felt in the game with 141 off our 40 overs. Arkley had bowled very tightly but also fielded well - especially their boundary sweepers did an excellent job.
Our tactics for Arkley's innings were fairly clear - bowl tightly, keep a lid on the run rate from the start and hope that our deep spin resources would pick up wickets to add further pressure. Reliable Mike proved even more reliable than usual in bowling an exceptionally miserly spell of 1 run off his 6 overs and was unlucky to have Arkley's best bat dropped at short cover. Mike's opening partner Asif also bowled a neat spell and Arkley could only reach 19 off the first 10 overs to give us some control. The first bowling changes were going to be important and Riaz's legsin and his cousin Suleiman's pace (easily the quickest bowling of the match) did a great job. Riaz bowled with great control and was unlucky to go wicketless with one catch going down at square leg and a few dropping just short/past fielders. Suleiman induced a drag-on and Arkley were 42-1 after nearly 20 overs. Arkley then made reasonable progress in the next 10, scoring at 4 an over as canny Knappert joined classy Candy to leave a final chase of about 50 in the last 10 overs. We remained confident with plenty of overs from quality bowlers in reserve. The presence of Candy was clearly a threat as he played many of the day's most fluent shots, but he was bowled by Joe to give us a boost. Strongroom debutant (our second in this game, along with Suleiman) Ashish came on to bowl a tidy few overs of offspin and he was unfortunate that two caught & bowled opportunities went down (one simple, the other not). At the other end we finally managed to hang on to a catch as Suleiman very calmly pouched one at long off. Ashish was unfortunate to be taken off after a short spell in order to introduce Sumer into the attack for a sentimental final spell. Sumer picked up wickets (as he has done most of the season - check out his impressive average) including the last danger Knappert and a second to a good Joe catch low down at deep mid-off. Arkley needed 19 off the final over but Sumer managed to avoid a final appearance meltdown and saw us safely home.
It is not often enough that we look like the home team at Highgate, but we played some solid stuff this time - seeing out our 40 overs and building a defendable total and then bowling exceptionally well. Yes, there were a couple of sloppy bits of fielding, avoidable runouts, missed singles, and some questionable shot selection but the only thing we were properly poor at was catching. The bowling efforts of Riaz and Suleiman were especially commendable given their fasting for Ramadan.
Written By: D.Gower
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