Pacific's miserable start to the 2019 NELCL season continued on Saturday as the Ocean's XI took another battering, this time from Canary Wharf Royals. 

The teams agreed to a shortened 35 over game, owing to weather. Having won the toss, CWR put us in to bat on a soggy Millfields wicket. To the visible annoyance of the captain, Duncan and Syed went out to open at 1pm with the team still missing a few players, including Sharan Timbadia, who was busy that morning/early afternoon "making provisions". 

Arsalan looked decent for his 5 and stuck around a bit, while top order run vacuums Duncan and Burnham dutifully made way for the skipper and Stockton with a duck apiece. Toby and Ben batted well (the skipper continuing his imperious early season form with another red ink 50), and Mutz made a lively cameo with 17. The oppo's bowling was tight although not spectacular (the scorebook shows that even run machine Stockton faced 10 consecutive dot balls). Notably, the Royals have an American-style huddle every time they take a wicket (think putting your hands in the middle and shouting). We finished on 148, and had high hopes that with a disciplined bowling and fielding performance we'd be in with a shout. 

Unfortunately, CWR took the game away from us in the first 5-10 overs. A mid-order collapse didn't materialise, despite Tim, Aroon, Sam and Shaz all cashing in on wickets. Stockton and Syed came late into the attack and bowled tightly, but despite prolonging the game were unable to unseat the Royals' batsmen, who were pretty well dug in by that point. As if to mock us, having checked how many runs were needed for the win, CWR's batsman launched the final ball of the match over cow corner for a huge six - he looked like he had plenty left in the tank. 

BB