Rishabh the cat has 9 lives
Jamia Hamdard University, Delhi, India, 2/27/2013
WCA won by 21 runs
Weekend Cricket Enthusiasts: 179-9 [Mayank 66]
Strongroom: 158-5 [R.Sharma 103]
View the Scorecard
And so Strongroom finally made their debut on foreign soil - a fixture that has taken us some 29 years to organise. Some of us had only been on Indian soil for a few hours, after flying over 4,000 miles from London to Delhi.
Our opening fixture was a T20 match, played under floodlights at the Jamia Hamdard University ground in South Delhi. It was somewhat strange inspecting the pitch and overseeing the toss in total darkness, but soon the generator chugged into action and the ground was bathed in bright, glaring light.
Everything was alien to us. Bright floodlights, white ball, black sightscreens, yellow kit, a baked and grassless earth track, batting and bowling powerplays, a very fast outfield and topped off with a huge, bright moon and call to prayer. The temperature was also cool, much cooler than the 30 degrees in the daytime.
Dave Proctor won the toss, and fancied a run chase, and it was local Delhiites Sumer and his cousin Shivam who opened our bowling attack. Shivam, with a Waqar Younis-esque run up and delivery, generated some good pace and lift, and soon had the openers stumps cartwheeling out of the ground. Soon afterwards Sumer snared another, and a run-out had WCA in some disarray. However, Abishekh and Mayank whirled their willows with deadly effectiveness, and soon enough there followed a flurry of 4s and 6s. Andy and Joe received a bit of tap in their first taste of sub-continental cricket, but the quick outfield and aggressive batting left little margin for error.
Will Davies took a good catch at square leg, and a superb slip catch, but still the runs flowed. As we found over the following days, edges off the bat disappear for 4 with great regularity in this hectic form of cricket, and all in all it was an intense and exhausting 20 overs of running around and concentrating on every ball. At times we were overstretched in the field, sometimes resulting in messy overthrows. Guy also entertained us all as he took evasive action from a full-blooded cover-drive which almost decapitated him at extra cover! The glare from some of the lights actually made some shots pretty difficult to pick up, and on this occasion Guy only sighted it too late, or just in time, depending on how you see things!
A quick turn-around between innings, and Shivam and Rishabh were again out in the middle. Essentially we struggled to chase down this total, ending up on 158-5, with Rishabh scoring his second Strongroom ton (and our first overseas). Incredibly, Rishabh was dropped 9 times, and was finally caught on the long-off boundary for 103. J.Gower and Sumer both assisted Rishabh in two useful partnerships, and at times we really looked like we could win this game, but wickets fell at vital moments, and were were left 21 shy.
And so Strongroom completed their first taste of Indian cricket, albeit with a loss. But all in all it was a delight for the senses. A frantic but very entertaining game of cricket.
Written By: J.Gower
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