A tale of 6 lbws; or how David Proctor became a hat-trick specialist
Regents Park, 5/24/2008
Strongroom won by 84 runs
Strongroom: 264-7 (J.Kelly 62, N.Cowley 57*, D.Proctor 44*, J.Claro 42)
LBS: 180 (Deepak 93*)
View the Scorecard
Regent's Park, bright and breezy. Strongroom had been concerned they would only have 9 on this bank holiday weekend, but Aarif Saiyed and Nick Cowley stepped up to help them out. In the end, it was LBS who could only muster 9, and their lack of two extra men, especially in their batting line up, may have cost them dear.
Stand-in skipper Dave P won the toss and elected to bat. LBS openers Sam and Deepak bowled beautifully to restrict Strongroom to 13-1 off the first 8 overs, with Rich outraged to be given lbw early on. This dismissal caused much discussion of lbw decisions, both ethics and mechanics. Someone (an LBS player, I think) was later heard to say "it seems a little early in the season to be given out lbw"! More on lbws later…
After Rich's departure, Jules and James saw off the opening attack and then climbed into the less threatening and disciplined change bowlers with an excellent 95 partnership. James played anchor and supported the dominant Jules who repeatedly lofted over the infield off the front foot and pierced the square offside boundary off the back foot. His 62 compiled off only 54 balls.
Strongroom were soaring at 106-2 off 18 overs, but then collapsed badly. Aarif bowled, Mellor chopping on, Gower cutting to backward point and James mis-executing a pull. 140-6 off 26 overs and the tall Vijay seemed to be extracting some variable bounce. Mike joined Dave P to stop the rot, and a limp end to the innings was further prevented and then turned on its head when Nick Cowley joined Dave to launch a remarkable assault of 88 off the last 7 overs. Nick's sparkling 57 scored from only 28 balls.
Tea Report: 6/10 Perfectly reasonable supermarket sandwiches etc
Strongroom were confident that the combination of a large total, a promising bowling attack, and LBS having only 9 batsmen made it likely that they would defend successfully. They did, but the LBS innings had plenty of incident and interest. Nick bowled a lively opening spell without luck. At the other end, Rich (still simmering about his lbw dismissal) ran in with real purpose and a bit of grunt and some characteristic swing. The first wicket fell to a very smart flying catch by Mark at short midwicket. Then Rich himself benefited from two lbw decisions and suddenly LBS were three down for not many. Deepak and Sam rebuilt skilfully, both combining watchful defence with attack of anything loose. By the 20 overs drinks interval this pair had moved LBS without further trouble to 105-3, and Strongroom were beginning to feel a little concern. Mark and Mike bowled reasonably, but couldn't make a breakthrough or slow the scoring rate. The introduction of Boote/Gower spin saw the ball just fall short/long of outfielders a couple of times, but also a sharp increase in the scoring rate. Dave P brought himself on off a short run with the stiff breeze at his back. By the end of his first over the game was effectively settled as he remarkably secured his second hat-trick in two games. First he bowled Sam, followed by two more lbws as full, in-ducking deliveries caught shuffling batsmen in front. There was a little bit of disquiet among LBS over this spate of lbw decisions (5 of the 8 LBS dismissals) in favour of the opposition (again mutterings about good strides forward etc), but the non-striking batsman remarked that they were based on batsman error and had not left the umpire much room for manoeuvre. It can be annoying to be given out by a member of your own team, but it's equally frustrating to come up against opposition umpires who are obviously never going to give anything against team mates.
Dave's hat-trick briefly went to his and most of the team's head as everyone assumed the game was up and lost a bit of focus. The LBS number 8 soon sorted this out by slamming a few boundaries to support Deepak. Eventually however, the last two wickets eventually fell in quick succession to the reintroduction of some slow bowling. Nick's superb late order assault was magnificent, but Deepak had played perhaps the classiest innings of the day, and was unlucky to have been stranded 7 short of a well-deserved century. Dave P my man of the match for his 44 not out and hat-trick, both of which went a long way to securing victory. Based on available records, it's now 4 wins each in this fixture.
Written By: DG
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