A recent discovery has been made...cooler bags with sandwiches do not fuel the fire in October and warm food in between innings is the way to go...more on this later ..
Strongroom won the toss and elected to bat on a cloudy mild morning at Wray in a 40 over contest vs a Pacific team chosen from an amazing number of 21 available, at the risk of contravening the Official Secrets Act ( Ben, Hugo and Paul , I may need your services if that is the case), the selection involved inputting these names into the Pacific mainframe supercomputer at a secret base - codename ' Mutz's spare room' , using the Shaz algorithm and cross checked with Pacific's offshore accounts . The last sentence may have triggered a HMRC investigation into a club that plays outdoor cricket in Northern Europe until November ... well if you are reading this you tax chasing mandarins , we are and yes we do!
You may wonder why such detailed explanation about the final 11 , well it threw up an interesting bowling attack of just the one genuine seam/swing bowler ( in Rahul) at Wray with its inviting shorter boundaries and Astro pitch . JD opened from the Playground end and after a couple of overs , decided to shorten the run up , throw in some slower balls and thereby stumble upon a combination that reaped great reward with a spell of 8 straight overs only going for 30 runs. Rahul was a very able support act finding prodigious swing and after 10 overs the Strongroom score was 39-0.
The game turned with the introduction of spin and Jones took a particular liking to Aaron by shuffling down at every opportunity and depositing the ball onto and on occasion, past the condemned pavilion roof , it got so predictable that Strongroom stationed one of their players on the roof to help speed things up in ball location and recovery.
The run rate began to climb at a very fast pace , anchored by a superb century from Jones and despite trying various bowling combinations, Pacific were left reeling by the unrelentless onslaught which is best summed up by the following statistics. Strongrooms first 100 runs took 110 balls the following hundred 84 balls and the final hundred..... 48 balls ! Details of the carnage can be seen on the scorecard but they do not paint the whole picture . There were a fair few dropped catches and some poor ground fielding , Ahmed was extremely unlucky as was Aroon in his second spell. Strongroom finished on 308 which the records would suggest it being a mammoth score at Wray. However cricket has evolved and 7.7 runs per over at Wray should not unduly dishearten anyone, and this was conveyed to the team as they went off for the innings break.
After a chastening 40 overs in the field a cold sandwich was hardly the tonic, Messers Ben and Riz scrolling through Corporate America's latest invaluable gift to the world ( Uber eats - Pacific do not endorse any one food delivery app and their are other fine food delivery apps also available on download ) and settled on KFC . Well Ben decided, seeing as we were chasing over 300 and had to go like the clappers , the birds at KFC were simply far too common for the task ahead , what was required were Posh birds ...further swipes right led to 'Bird of Holloway Rd ' flaunting her organic corn fed wares, dipped in buttermilk ...with house pickles ..Monterey Jack cheese ..chilli jam and lemon sauce all encased in a lightly toasted Brioche Bun. As Riz and Ben settled in with a posh bird each...a knowing glance was exchanged between the pair ..this is the rocket fuel we need brother .
Jon and Toby opened the innings with clear instructions to go from the off and not let the run rate drop to less than 5-6 per over , however Strongroom's bowling attack well complemented their batting and the opening duo of Ashraf and Godi proved a little too good for the experienced pair who struggled to 68-0 off 15 overs with the required run rate now at almost 10 per over. Exactly the situation we wanted to avoid and that has become rather too common in recent run chases.
After Jon's departure JD and Jas upped the ante but perished due to the higher risk involved.
Enter Posh bird No 1....in the 24th over with the score on 116 -3 and 192 required off 14 overs ...Riz decided that some buttermilk inspired stroke play was the only way to go...channelling his inner murgh masala...he blasted a 23 ball fifty that included four 6s and four 4s ...this had the desired knock on effect on Toby who slipped into third gear and started taking more risks.
The score rocketed up to 203 in the 32nd over and with 105 needed in the last 7 overs , all of a sudden there was hope, alas the return of opening bowler Ashraf in the 33rd over snuffed It out by removing both Toby ( 85 off 99 balls) and Riz ( 72 off 34 balls ) in consecutive deliveries.
Enter Posh bird no2...the Brioche Brigade's wingman Ben B decided to show how hard he has worked on his game (and in this humble correspondent's view the most improved player this season along with Jas Basi) and blasted a quick fire 24 off 19 balls to indicate ( quite rightly ) that he had been slotted far too low down the order.
So we fell some 59 runs short in the end but a loss is only as damaging as the lessons not learnt. Strongroom deserved to win as they outplayed us in every department we however could and should have done better. Given the number of players available it is incumbent on those selected , myself included, to give our maximum effort and commitment , particularly in the field , if not for ourselves then certainly out of respect for those not selected.
