Arif gatecrashes Highgate party
Highgate CC, London, 4/18/2021
Strongroom won by 53 runs
Strongroom: 287-6 [M.Godhi 82, J.Thomas 54]]
Highgate: 234-6 [Atyeo 62, Danny 53]
View the Scorecard
Having been denied certain victory by a freak April snow storm in opening game of the season, SCC reassembled in London N8 to do it all again. Highgate CC were the hosts on a beautiful spring day. 5 changes were made from the previous game, including the return of skipper Dave Proctor who got his first call right by winning the toss and electing to bat
Gwyn, wearing only four layers of clothing this week , opened the innings with Vinay. Both batsmen showed a good mixture of caution and intent to get the innings off to a steady start Having seen off the openers, they began going after the young spinners that had been brought on. Gwynn ( 35 ) was the first to go stumped trying to sweep the left armer. Vinay followed him in the next over when he was adjudged LBW. From his reaction, one felt that had DRS been available, he would have asked for a review. However, he managed to console himself by the fact that he had been the beneficiary of a dropped catch a few overs earlier. Ben ( 37) came in at 3 and continued to show good early season form with the bat. He was joined by debutant Josh (54) and together this Devon duo put on a brisk 93 run partnership. The platform had been laid for the middle order to cash in and next batsmen Fenil (21), and especially Arif ( 82) ,happily obliged. While Fenil played in his usual aggressive manner, Arif had the opposition scampering to all corners of the ground. It was not a slog-fest, but an innings of controlled, and at times even brutal clean hitting . Search parties could be seen regularly scratching around in the bushes while the adjacent tennis courts had been put on “red ball” alert. Sai (5*) was next in following Fenil’s departure and he sensibly fed much of the strike to Arif who was eventually out stumped. Trishnan (2*) coming in at 8 said a lot about SCC’s batting strength. The now familiar outdoor Covid tea break was taken with 288 from 40 overs on the board. This was a good score, but on a good batting track with shortish boundaries and a fast outfield as well as a good batting line up to come, Strongroom were taking nothing for granted.
Arif ( 8-0-3-28) and Mario( 5-0-1-12) opened the bowling. The young left hand opening batsman George soon displayed ability with some attacking shots while his senior partner at the other end was happy to play a supporting role. Strongroom dealt the first blow when Arif got one to jag back and go crashing into the left hander’s off stump. Next over and the senior partner missed a straight one from Mario and he was gone LBW. It had been mentioned at the team talk prior to taking the field that any of the top 4 batsmen had the ability to win the game on their own. The left handed import was
The image below shows debutant Josh Thomas trudging off after having scored 54 on a highgly succesful Strongroom debut.
Written By: M.Picceri
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