Dar Legends punish a tired Strongroom in hot conditions
Leaders Ground, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 5/11/2022
Dar Legends won by 37 runs
Dar Legends: 214-0
Strongroom: 177
View the Scorecard
When I won the toss and chose to field first in the heat of the afternoon sun, match compere Mr A Orme could not resist bringing up Nasser Hussein, the Gabba, and 2002. The game has moved on, I said. Apparently not.
What followed was possibly Strongroom’s worst ever fielding performance. The encyclopaedic mind of Jon Gower, wandering his mind-palace of scorecards past, failed to recall a purer example of collective incompetence. Our ground fielding started with intent, but soon deteriorated through comedy into farce. Our catching went from bad to worse. By the end of the innings we could boast of a perfect record: zero percent catch success rate.
On an excellent batting surface at the Leaders Ground, the Legends’ batting progressed as you might already be imagining. They kept hitting, we kept dropping – or letting the ball through our hands, or through our legs, or under our feet. Both openers retired, judging that this was their only way back to the shade of the pavilion. By the time the dust had settled, the Legends had posted 214-0 from their 20 overs.
Special mention must go to Josh Fitzpatrick who took a ball to the face while fielding at deep midwicket but picked himself up to bowl with great control at the death. His two overs yielded three drops. An excellent return on the day. And also Andy Orme, who stoically endured a wicketless tour despite watching four catches go down off his bowling across the week.
A round of ice lollies did little to take the sting out of a chastening couple of hours in the field. Spirits were lifted, however, by the arrival of Andy’s latest vibrant suit, delivered by his tailor and – of course – a Tanzanian news anchor. We were ready to chase in style.
If our fielding was ridiculous, then our batting was sublime. We even managed to do a proper powerplay and were racing ahead of the eight ball at 73-2 off the first six overs. Vinay and I built on the start made by Ujjal and Ankit to take us to 124-2 off 11. Was the impossible possible? Vinay was striking some glorious straight sixes against the spinners and we ran a sickening number of twos into the “pockets”.
When Vinay (50) was out stumped looking for another big six, my struggles to clear the boundary were exposed and Jon came in but couldn’t get going. The asking rate climbed, we lost wickets, and an improbable victory drifted out of our grasp. Andy and Louie Orme couldn’t quite find the 40 we needed off the last over. Legends won by 37 runs.
The game made a disappointing end to the cricket on tour because it really was one that we could win – and therefore end the tour with a winning record. But all cricketers know what wins matches. Let's just hope we could at least catch our flights (even that didn’t happen! JG.).
In the image below we see the Dar Legends skipper Adil, the umpire, and Strongroom skipper Ben at the toss.
Written By: B.Hartridge
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