Tim Lerwill and Phil McDuell batting against the Cryptics
Stragglers of Asia vs Cryptics at the Bigside Ground, Pangbourne College
Result: Stragglers of Asia won by 7 wickets.
Match Report
The Stragglers took to the field at Pangbourne days after a poor showing versus the college side with demons of the uneven wicket still firmly in some minds. Bowling first as it transpired the Stragglers attack was custom made for this type of surface. Parker & Dawson opened the bowling with Parker grumbling every now and then about his line and length leaking the odd boundary but bowling well and at the other end Dawson bowling dot after dot restricting the openers. Dawson in particular bowled very well with figures of 2-19 off 11 overs. Wickets fell regularly around the Cryptics young opener T Eapen who batted very sensibly as wickets fell around him for a well-made 60. The introduction of our own youngster M Surendran brought on the collapse of and even did for for Eapen as he took a very impressive 4-22 off his 11 overs. He was very well supported by the senior straggler’s players with some excellent catches from Perry & Boulter leaping in the outfield. Even the introduction of the skipper’s part time leg spin could only bring another wicket, probably from a long hop! Cryptics ended 104 all out.
A wonderful curry lunch was had by all which led to the batting order being shuffled to allow some recovery time for those who had eaten to much left T Lerwill and Ph McDuell to open the batting on a challenging surface. Both batted brilliantly surviving the unplayable balls and accumulating runs in between both making it to the 40s before Lerwill fell for 47. With less than 10 to win this spoiled what looked like a very impressive 10 wicket victory but more was yet to come. Cryptics own captain N Ashton had resorted to the same leg spinning captain tactic as his counter part apart from him having more ability than the stragglers captain. All 3 wickets fell in the same over getting Allsop and Surrendran in consecutive balls. Perry expertly avoided the hat trick ball and steered stragglers to the winning total with Ph McDuell finishing 49 not out.
A game played in a typical wandering cricket spirit enjoyed by all as much as the curry was.
Team batting first: Cryptics
| No. | Batsman
|
How out | Bowler | Score |
| 1 | T Eapen | St Asher | Surendran | 60 |
| 2 | R Walker | Ct Boulter | Parker | 11 |
| 3 | M Goldsworthy | Bowled | Dawson | 1 |
| 4 | P Rao | Ct Asher | Dawson | 0 |
| 5 | A McCulla + | LBW | Banham | 4 |
| 6 | D Armstrong | Ct Parker | Surendran | 7 |
| 7 | A Kapur | Bowled | Banham | 2 |
| 8 | N Ashton * | Bowled | Surendran | 7 |
| 9 | E Montague | Ct Dawson | Salter | 6 |
| 10 | P Massey | Not Out | 2 | |
| 11 | W Wilkins | Ct Perry | Surendran | 0 |
| Extras | 4 | |||
| TOTAL | 104 for 10 Wickets |
Bowling
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets |
| Parker | 8 | 2 | 23 | 1 |
| Dawson | 11 | 4 | 19 | 2 |
| Banham | 8 | 0 | 17 | 2 |
| M Surendran | 11 | 4 | 22 | 4 |
| Salter | 6 | 0 | 19 | 1 |
Team batting second: Stragglers of Asia
| No | Batsman | How Out | Bowler | Score
|
| 1 | T Lerwill | St McCulla | Ashton | 47 |
| 2 | Ph McDuell | Not Out | 49 | |
| 3 | J Allsop | LBW | Ashton | 0 |
| 4 | M Surendran | Bowled | Ashton | 0 |
| 5 | I Perry | Not Out | 2 | |
| 6 | W Boulter | Did Not Bat | ||
| 7 | A Asher + | Did Not Bat | ||
| 8 | J Parker | Did Not Bat | ||
| 9 | D Dawson | Did Not Bat | ||
| 10 | M Banham | Did Not Bat | ||
| 11 | I Salter * | Did Not Bat | ||
| Extras 9 | ||||
| TOTAL | 107 for 3 Wickets |
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets |
| Kapur | 7 | 1 | 16 | 0 |
| Wilkens | 6 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
| Massey | 4 | 0 | 22 | 0 |
| Ashton | 9.4 | 1 | 35 | 3 |
| Goldsworthy | 2 | 0 | 16 | 0 |
| Eapen | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| Rao | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |