Miserable game!
Regents Park, 8/15/2015
Village won by 6 wickets
Strongroom: 125
Village: 127-6 [J.de Mellow 59, R.Cressey 53]
View the Scorecard
A wholly forgettable and miserable game. We had struggled to raise a team all week, and ended up miraculously with 10 - including 6 players i had never met before (featuring a few debutants). By this stage we felt obliged to fulfill the fixture, as it proved too late to find a replacement opposition.
To compound our situation, I lost the toss and we were inserted on a damp and typically poorly-prepared Regents Park surface, in cloudy and humid conditions. The outfield resembled a rugby pitch, and there was even the predictable artificial track positioned adjacent to the grass strip. Oh, and throw in no tea or changing room. I love the setting, but the cricketing facilities are the worst we experience across London.
Faisal and Jimmy opened up, and Faisal tried to hit every ball out of the ground. He succeeded in hitting a nice straight 6, and succeeded also in entertaining us all with his reckless but swashbuckling swishing, Jimmy once again looked very fluent, but sadly failed to convert his good start. Both myself and Rana were trapped lbw by inswinging yorkers, and Zulfiqar looked good before being run out in a mix up with Joe. Joe (28) again looked settled and untroubled throughout his stay, but with his dismissal (another inswinging yorker), our only other run-getter was via another spirited knock from Grant (29*). Village bowled well, and we were dismissed for a somewhat predictable 125.
Village openers put on about 100 for the first wicket, and unfortunately 2-3 chances were grassed in the outfield. Debutant Abdul and Faisal both bowled very tidily and achieved some good swing with the Dukes ball. Raging Potato (Grant) and Noodle (Rahman) were both uncharacteristically unthreatening in their short spells, and it was with some amusement that Josh (off-spin) and Zulfiqar (medium off a few paces) both picked up two wickets each in the final death throes of the ‘run chase’. When the end finally came, we were all keen to slope off and seek out some satisfaction in what remained of our Saturday.
Written By: J.Gower
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