Jaguars kept on a short leash
Highgate Wood, 5/17/2014
Strongroom won by 29 runs
Strongroom: 134-9 [J.Hall 50]
Jesmond Jaguars: 105
View the Scorecard
A glorious but muggy day greeted the Jesmond Jaguars and Strongroom CC to Highgate woods.
Ed won the toss for the ‘Guars’ and put SR into bat. Opening the bowling with tight lines and good variations, Eccles and Steve set about working the batsman over. The Highgate wicket played as ever with low bounce and some classic green top twitchyness off the surface. Mitch and Arni played with solid defence and some confidence, but only rarely managed to get the ball off the square, such was the quality of the bowling. Restricting SR to less than 20 runs off the first 10 overs was testimony to this quality. On his first outing on the stodgy Highgate pitch, Arni defended stoutly to shore up one end whilst Mitch looked to get in. However, Steve had other ideas and in his 3rd over (?), he beat Mitch with an absolute snorter that ripped like a leggie and squared up the opener; Mitch was then dismissed the very next ball with a slightly fuller delivery that took the finest of edges and was expertly taken by the Jags keeper, diving forward to his right. Quality cricket.
Jimmy entered the fray and with new-found confidence played one of his finest innings in recent years. He was reasonably assisted by the top 6 ; however all of them felt they got out cheaply, gifting their wickets rather than having them taken. In many ways a classic set of Highgate dismissals - good bowling rewarded by impatient batting on the slow-paced wicket.
Jimmy’s inning really stood out as the day wore on, scoring at least twice as many as any other batsman for either SR or the Jags. Dave G second high scored for SR with his solid 11.
By drinks (20 overs) SR were struggling to push the score past 3 an over and had lost 4 of our top 6, many removed by the Guar ‘second string’ bowlers mixing width and pace to induce false shots, that were readily snaffled in the covers or taken by the wickie. Arni cleaned up for 5 off Eccles, Vinay, a classy sub continental all rounder came and went too quickly, James Schneider looked in good nick scoring 10 runs, but chipped one up to point where he was caught by Eccles; Dave Gower, after a solid start with good use of the lofted straight drive, edged a feather to the keeper and walked. Dave Proctor was in and out in a few overs nicking a widish ball to the keeper who took a good catch off his chest standing up. Guy was in and out at number 8 for 0 leaving SR on 91/8. Our hopes for a decent total relied on Joe Rahman, Grant and Asif. Joe entered with the score on about 91 and defended with good intent; and along with Jimmy got SR past a 100. Jimmy was out trying to force the pace and got an unlucky dismissal off his pad. Grant came in at 10 and howled with derision at his spooned catch to short third man with 5 overs to go. Joe was well aware of the need to bat out the 40 and so set about a no risk approach to his batting - making the bowlers get him out rather than get himself out. He did this with real application and with Asif at no 11 put on a very important 23 runs to get the Strongroom up to respectable 133 off 40. As the innings came to a close we all felt it was a reasonable score given the quality of the Jaguars bowling and sharp fielding.
We had a good tea courtesy of J Sainsbury and then the Jags set about the task of scoring the 134 to win.
The openers Bush and Lewis ooked pretty solid in defence and made a decent start against James Schneider and Grant Dixon, both of whom bowled stingy, full lines to restrict the scoring to 2 an over off the first 9. Mitch came in as first change and only managed 2 wayward overs before getting the shout to ‘have a blow’. Joe Rahman, who bowled slightly earlier than anticipated, was also a little less mean than usual, albeit against some very measured batting, defending all straight balls stoically and jumping on anything short to dispatch it to the deep/boundary. The Jags running between the wickets was exemplary.
After the initial tight spell from the SR opening bowlers, the Jags seemed to gain a little extra traction in the chase and rapidly pushed the score onto around 40 off 13. Asif, who usually opens for SR was bought on as 3rd change. He bowled exceptionally well to rein in the Jags batsman, narrowly missing a spectacular caught and bowled that somehow evaded the second and third grabs at a very well driven shot. Undeterred, he bowled really well and eventually got the scalp of the useful number Boon at 3. However, the Jags made decent progress towards the drinks break in spite of an improved few overs from Joe who found his length and pace variations that we know so well. The over before drinks we bought back James Schneider for a quick burst and he paid us handsomely with an aggressively bowled set of 6 balls that finally saw the end of the opener Bush, with a ball that swung away and nipped back through the gate to castle him. We all knew how important that wicket was in the match context and so took dinks with a real belief that the game was very much ON. 58/3. Magic darts! Resuming after drinks and tobacco, SR continued to put the pressure on with James Schneider cleaning up Taylor at no 4 and Asif bowling Chris at number 6 in overs 21 and 22. Mitch who got out Elliot at 7 in the first ball of his second spell and game felt very much in our grasp, although the Jags history against SR tells another tale.
Steve, who came in at 5, countered with some good stroke play and aggressive advances down the wicket. His attack was well placed and had the room eyeing the scoreboard as the runs ticked over rapidly overs 23-28, getting the Jags ahead of the curve and the required runs down to less than 2.5 an over in a couple of quick fire partnerships with skipper Eccles and Rickard. For a few overs, it looked and felt as if he would shepherd the Jags home, as he and Rickard (dropped on 0) made inroads into the runs required. It wasn’t to be; he fell afoul, like so many before him, of the slow surface and chipped an easy catch to James Schneider in the covers off Mitch to leave the Jags precariously placed at 105/7.
Joe Rahman retuned for his final spell after Asif’s spirited performance and took 3 in his last over to wrap up the innings. The first was a good low catch by Grant at short cover to remove the dangerous Rickard, but the highlight of the 3 was a magnificent belly caught and bowled which saw a delighted and slightly startled Joe well rewarded for his consistent lines. The final wicket fell to a good shout for LBW and the match was over, with the Jags falling short by 29 runs after threatening to overhaul the total in quick time..
All in all a good, well contested match. Many thanks as always to the Jaguars for a great game. On this occasion they just fell short under pressure from good bowling, uncharacteristically nervy play and a very slow Highgate pitch. We look forward to the return match later this summer.
Written By: D.Proctor
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