Strongroom routed by teenage Dar’ites
Gymkhana stadium, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 4/11/2022
Dar Combined XI won by 9 wickets
Strongroom: 89
Dar Combined: 91-1
View the Scorecard
Somehow the Zanzibar game represented the pinnacle of the tour, and so there was a slightly subdued atmosphere in the tour bus as we pulled up to the pleasant Gymkhana ground. Andy and Loiue stayed an extra day in Zanzibar to get some quality father and son time, but thankfully Josh also changed plans (in the opposite direction) and came back with us for the rest of the tour, and the opposition lent us local cricketer Mohamad to bring us up to a full XI. The historic Gymkhana ground has a downtown Dar feel to it, surrounded by a golf course, trees and looming skyscrapers, but somehow the lack of buildings around the boundary edge meant it didn’t have that intimate club feel of Annadil Burhani or the Leaders Ground.
Our opposition were largely the same XI that we faced three days previously, and the tall left-arm quick Pafrodi was again hard work, achieving late in-swing at a healthy place. As it was, both myself and Ben had our stumps disrupted as we left balls that swung in late, and with Jimmy’s error of judgment to the spinner Hamza Ali, we soon found ourselves in some peril at 1-3. Vinay (19), Ankit (14), Joe (18) and Ujjal (11) all made valiant efforts to rebuild our innings, but ultimately the quality of fielding and bowling was too good for us on the day. Otherwise, it was good to see Josh take the opportunity to show some admirable defensive determination in his 6 off 24 deliveries. Before the game started we were informed that the surface was slower and with more variable bounce than at other grounds in Dar, and that 150 is a decent score, but our eventual total of 89 was hugely disappointing and clearly insufficient on this expansive ground.
In their response, Joe took an early wicket, but otherwise Dar Combined XI glided to 90 with ease. One of their side admitted they had learned from our innings in our previous encounter to bat more patiently when chasing a total, which was nice to hear. Abdulazak was once again our nemesis, and duly collected the Man of the Match award for his five wickets. As the match had concluded early we retired to the nearby pool area for some swimming competitions (Tim the clear winner), cold beers and pina coladas - all of which provided some welcome relief.
In the image below we see our sorry score after 22 overs.
Written By: J.Gower
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