Strongroom left with another tough lesson at JH University
Jamia Hamdard University, Delhi, India, 3/4/2013
Nimit XI won by 86 runs
Nimit XI: 215-4 [Yogi 86, Negi 59]
Strongroom: 129 [Vivek 4-8]
View the Scorecard
Once again Dave P generously farmed out the role of skipper, and this time Sumer took on the onerous responsibility of seeking our first win of our tour. Nimit XI won the toss and they decided to bat first.
Strongroom were again struggling to put together a team, with Guy Wilson missing with a crushed finger, Ujjal Roy leaving us halfway through the match (he turned up en route to the airport) and whilst Will Davies made the game, he was clearly still fighting the intestinal demons that raged inside.
We made a stunning start to this match on the very first ball, with Dave Proctor running forwards and taking a blinding catch at point from a square-drive off Andy Orme. However, our celebrations were short-lived, as Nimit XI went on to fill their boots in a final total of 215-4 off their 20 overs. Negi and Yogi were particularly aggressive, and all our bowlers (bar myself and Andy) went for over 10 an over.
Our fielders in particular took an absolute hammering in the field - with Olly Moore and David Proctor bearing the brunt of their strokeplay on the cover boundary, in a stunning display of outfielding. On one occasion Dave and Olly collided as they competed for the ball, and Dave received a spiked knee and head for his troubles. Jimmy pulled off two more excellent stumpings, but myself and Andy were fairly useless in the field as fatigue and ‘body creak’ finally started to have its say. Towards the end of their innings, Joe Rahman took a powerfully hit straight drive off his own bowling onto the bony part of his ankle. As well as making a rifle-shot noise, this also had Joe hobbling around for the rest of the evening, though fortunately nothing was broken.
Strongroom got off to a poor start as our most fluent batsman, Jimmy Hall, was bowled for 6. A good recovery followed as Olly (34) and myself (36) set about rebuilding our run-chase, but this faltered as I made an error which led to Olly being wastefully run out. After 10 overs we required 155 to win, and the task was clearly needing an input from Sahil. However, somewhat unbelievably Sahil was stumped off his very first ball, driving loosely at a wide full-pitched ball outside off-stump. In his defence, he did receive a ball straight into his ‘midriff’ as he fielded on the boundary during our battering, and this apparently had affected his dexterity. Anyway, it was a serious blow to lose him, and after I holed out at long-off, only Sumer (25) made a contribution in the rest of our innings as we stumbled to 129 all out.
It must be said, the fielding of Nimit XI was collectively probably the best I have ever seen at this level of cricket. Their entire team were incredibly committed in the field, and at times 2-3 fielders were competing for the same ball, such was their enthusiasm. They took all their catches (not an easy task under lights), and their ground-fielding and throwing from the deep was just ridiculous.
So, again we left Jamia Hamdard in defeat, but our spirits were not dampened. Again we ate like kings in Ashoka restaurant, and it was just another incident-packed day in Delhi.
Written By: J.Gower
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