Bharati Battering!
Gyan Bharati School, Delhi, India, 3/3/2013
South Delhi won by 5 wickets
Strongroom: 238-9 [S.Kashab 83, J.Hall 41]
South Delhi: 239-5 [Sahej 92]
View the Scorecard
Dave P again shared out the tour skipper role, this time handing me the golden chalice! I won the toss and decided to bat first in our second consecutive 40 over game. As we were discovering, Indian club cricketers don’t really play 40 over cricket any more, such is the dominance of floodlit T20 cricket.
By now, the wheels were starting to come off the Strongroom touring wagon! Guy (heavily swollen finger), Andy (creaking frame) and Will (Delhi Belly) all missed out. Will actually made the trip rather optimistically to the ground, but sadly had to return to the hotel once his interiors started to twist and turn.
This fixture took place at the delightful Gyan Bharati school, and featured a particularly dry and flat track which screamed ‘runs’ every time you looked at it.
We got off to a bad start, losing Olly for a duck, but Jimmy continued his wonderful touch (41), caressing the ball with consummate ease to all corners of the ground. I played with some fluency (at last) for a quick 37, and for a while myself and Jimmy were ticking along nicely. However, two sloppy mistakes cost us both our wickets, bringing Sahil and Ujjal to the wicket. Sahil (83) played another tremendous innings, though this time he was slightly more circumspect in this strokeplay than his brutal century against us two days previous. After 25 overs Strongroom were well situated at 166-3, and whilst Shail was at the crease we were even considering a final total of around 300. However, Sahil was eventually stumped, and although Ujjal (21) and Dave P (16*) both played very resourcefully, we never quite regained the momentum of the earlier half of our innings. Nevertheless, we were relatively pleased with our final offering of 238-9, especially after our routing for 140 the day before, yet I also sensed that we were still short - given the rapidity of the outfield and the friendliness of the surface for batting.
However...South Delhi simply knocked off our total off only 20 overs! Again, we were taken aback at the relentless aggression of Indian batsmen, as time and time again they hammered straight 6s and plundered 4s around the ground. Local Delhiites Sumer and Shivam in particular were meted out for special treatment (121 runs off their 9 overs, including 26 off one Sumer over), and yet another opposition batsman registered a century against us. All our bowlers suffered though, and this proved to be a very heavy defeat.
However, again we refused to let the cricket dent our spirits, and we spent a very enjoyable evening in the Katariya house, eating, drinking and bantering into the early hours.
Written By: J.Gower
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