Sunday 16 September 2018 Stragglers of Asia vs Honourable Artillery Company

Result: Lost by 8 wickets

Report:

At the end of a distinctly autumnal week in London the sun made a welcome return for the Stragglers’ penultimate match of the season against the HAC at Armoury House. After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Stragglers started solidly against a probing HAC attack who made the openers work hard for runs on what was otherwise a true batting wicket.  After playing sensibly and waiting for the rare bad ball the opening pair of Pradeesh Surendran and Nick Gleave had put on 42 when Pradeesh had a rush of blood to the head and was bowled trying to mow a full length ball from the lively Gray. He was followed in the same over by his opening partner; bowled also by Grey, this time to a beauty that moved off the seam. When Grey struck in his next over for the third time; pinning the luckless Gurpaul Singh on the crease LBW for a duck, the score had lurched from 42-0 to 49-3.  This became 64-4 when Assad Naeem flashed at a wide delivery and was very well caught at third slip.  Tom Calder supported by guest Suraj Vithlani set about repairing the damage mixing watchful defence with counter-attacking shots putting on 70 for the fifth wicket and a dragging the Stragglers towards a respectable total before Suraj was LBW for 30.  Tom went on to make a dogged half century but with time slipping away before the half way mark, he perished in the search of quick runs to push the total along.  With his dismissal, the runs dried up as Grey returned to the attack dismissing guest Adit Kohari for 8.  At 3.15pm being roughly half time and after 40 overs had been bowled, the Stragglers declared at 161 for 7. While by the standards of the ground this was arguably a slightly below par score, it was by no means indefensible for a Stragglers side containing 8 bowlers even against a strong HAC batting side. However, the HAC openers made clear their intention to score freely from the start. The abrasive pitch and the bright sunshine meant that the seam bowlers all struggled to get any real movement either in the air and off the pitch and although candidate Debayan Dasgupta was unlucky that two very sharp chances off his bowling did not go to hand, the HAC opening pair quickly took the score past 50 without loss. The Stragglers’ bowling suffered its first set back when Assad Naeem was forced to retire from the attack with a knee injury but at the other end, Tom Vila at last made the breakthrough claiming King LBW. However this did little to stem the runs as Liam Casey, the HAC captain duly continued the work of the outgoing batsman. The introduction of spin did little to stem the flow as although there was significant turn and bounce in the pitch, enabling them to beat the bat frequently, the spinners struggled to get a consistent line and length which was ruthlessly exploited by Casey and Hooper until the latter misjudged a Surendran “zooter” (aka a long-hop) and was bowled. Sadly this did little to delay the inevitable and the HAC duly cruised to a deserved 8 wicket win. A keenly contested and good spirited game enjoyed by all. Special thanks to Barbara Egglesfield for scoring alone and for much of the time facing into glaring sunshine which made following the umpire’s signals difficult at the best of times.

Team Batting First: Stragglers of Asia

  Batsman How Out Bowler Score
1 N Gleave Bowled Grey 25
2 P Surendran Bowled Grey 15
3 T Calder Ct King Madapuri 57
4 G Singh LBW Grey 0
5 A Naeem (c) Ct Gillard Borton 4
6 S Vithlani (g) LBW Rez 30
7 A Kothari (g) Bowled Grey 8
8 I Perry (+) Not out   6
9 T Vila Not Out   0
10 D Dasgupta (c) Did Not Bat    
11

 

R Pollock-Hill (*) Did Not Bat    
    Overs: 40 Extras: 16 TOTAL: 161-7 dec

 

Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
J Grey 10 1 25 4
H Agnew 8 1 28 0
P Borton 6 1 23 1
D Madapuri 8 2 33 1
Rez 5 1 27 1
G King 3 0 18 0

 

Team Batting Second: Honourable Artillery Company

  Batsman How Out Bowler Score
1 G King LBW Vila 24
2 J. Hooper Bowled Surendran 73
3 L Casey (*) Not out   40
4 A Gillard Not out   15
5 H. Agnew      
6 P. Borton      
7 Rez      
8 Madapuri      
9 J Grey      
10 A.N. Other      
11 U.N. Named      
      Extras: 10 TOTAL: 162-2

 

Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
D Dasgupta (c) 5 1 23 0
S Vithlani (g) 4 0 19 0
A Naeem (g) 1 0 9 0
T Vila 6 0 24 1
A Kothari 2 0 17 0
R Pollock-Hill 6 0 48 0
P Surendran 3 0 21 1

 

Umpires: Andrew Carnegie; Charles

Scorer(s): Barbara Egglesworth