Strongroom stutter under lights

Mill Hill School, 2/5/2023

Mill Hill Lions won by 16 runs
Mill Hill Lions: 200-7
Strongroom: 184

View the Scorecard

Tuesday 2nd May 2023 saw the 1st ever competitive T20 on the Astro, under lights, in Mill Hill.
Our sincerest thanks goes out to Strongroom CC for making the trip across North London for a 7:45pm start.
The weather was set fair, however this ground will allow us to play in rain, sleet and snow .
As a gesture of good will Mill Hill conceded the toss and Strongroom decided to field first.
Overall is was a closely fought contest, competitive but friendly. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday evening.
Mill Hill got off to a pretty solid start (60 off 6 overs) mainly thanks to Hamza (47 off 22) bludgeoning 7 fours, at the other end Naveed (18 off 21) plodded along playing and missing outside off until he top edged a pull to square leg. 62-1.
That led to a couple of quick wickets with the Lions being pegged back to 88-4 by some tight bowling from Arif and Farooq.
Alex was the mainstay through the middle overs scoring 43 off 31 balls including 4 fours before retiring. By the time Yash was run out the Lions were at a tipping point (133-6). From there it could have gone either way.
But…bring on the beasts!! Gowri (25 off 14) and Akshay (24 off 7) playing with confidence, aggression and focus that RCB (or any IPL team would be proud of).
Mill Hill ended their innings on 200 -7.
A slightly tentative start by Strongroom losing their openers in the first 3 overs (8 for 2).
Lions bowling attack was held together superbly throughout the innings by Krishna 1 for 26 off 4 overs, including 12 dot balls.
The middle overs were a tale of two ends. Gowri (4 for 27) kept it tight and took regular wickets.
Strongroom, however managed to target the other end and made a good recovery with some solid hitting from Arif and Baghav. With the score on 114-7 after 11 they were up with the run rate.
Lions had a good day in the field with 3 run outs and 3 catches, superb team work with Yash and Naveed (combined age of nearly 100) diving around like teenagers proving if the mind is willing the body will follow (unfortunately the body takes revenge for the next 3 days!!).
At 140-9 it should have been all over but Strongroom had their own beasts!!! Ben (27 off 17) steering the ship and Farooq (21 off 6) doing an Akshay got them within touching distance.
With 16 needed off 18 balls, Strongroom were favourites.
Last throw of the dice, Gowri came back to bowl his 4th over. Ben played him confidently for two balls then a chip to midwicket saw Yash swoop Jonty Rhodes style and take an amazing diving catch to win it for the Lions.
An exciting game with some great performances from both sides. Man of the Match was Gowri.
The teams meet again, this time on grass, on 30th May. Looking forward to it.
Thank you to Ben and the Strongroom team. See you in a few weeks.



In this image below, we see Arif charging in.








Written By: Mill Hill Lions CC