Strollers comeback continues!

The Strollers’ revival of fortunes continued last night with a comprehensive win over The Village at Alexandra Palace Park. Not only that, but it was also our first victory (in living memory) in the shorter Twenty20 format of the game — another hugely gratifying achievement.

Well, perhaps strictly speaking that isn’t true. With a number of latecomers in the opposition’s ranks and ominous cloud cover overhead, the captains agreed to reduce the game to just 18 overs a side with concerns of bad light affecting play later in the evening. Gav duly won the toss and, following Sunday’s successful run chase opted to again field first.

The decision paid off early. After a probing first over from Mikey, Chris at the other end dropped in a short delivery that Village skipper KP pulled hard to square leg where Alex took an excellent reflex catch — setting the tone for what was to be a very sharp Strollers display in the field. Mikey continued to tighten the screws from the pavilion end, building up impressive pace, although Chris lost his direction a little so was replaced in the fifth over by Jez, who immediately found his groove and troubled the batsmen with looping swing.

John Lucarotti, often a Stroller but tonight a Villager, did his best to work the ball away where possible and did well to see off Mikey, who completed a fearsome spell, despite some wayward deliveries in his last over. Mikey was replaced by Trevor — making his first appearance of the season — who began asking the batsmen all kinds of questions with his trademark left arm spin, duly trapping Lucarotti LBW for 21 with an appeal so loud it would have rendered Windsor Davies hoarse.

The breakthrough allowed Gav to apply more pressure to the batsmen with a closely knit field but, whilst the Villagers’ number four Nick found scoring difficult, their number three, Saul, was seeing the ball better and managed to unleash several boundaries.

Graeme came on to replace Jez — who had unluckily seen a couple of chances go down in his last over — and with surgical precision made the next breakthrough as he bowled Nick through the gate for 10. The Village’s wicketkeeper Dom also looked unsettled and it wasn’t long before he became Trevor’s second LBW victim of the evening. Graeme too earned a leg before decision next over, dismissing Marcus for 2. And then, in his final over, Trevor completed a trio of LBWs with the wicket of Parp!

As the innings headed towards it’s conclusion, Saul opened his shoulders and took the attack to the field. In the thirteenth over he managed to take his side past the 100 mark but then, oddly, retired having made 30.  Over-confidence The Strollers wondered? One last wicket fell — that of the concerningly nicknamed ‘Bomb’ who Matt caught behind off Graeme — before Harsh tidily bowled the last over, and The Village’s innings closed on a very gettable 126-7.

After a quick turnaround, the Strollers batsmen strode out, anxious to knock off the runs before bad light became an issue. However, the innings hit a couple of bumps early on. First Bill, promoted to open, played down the wrong line and was bowled by White. Then, a few balls later, Graeme — in at three — furiously ran himself out when Harsh nudged a leg-flick behind to a sharp-eyed backward square leg.

What was needed was sensible batting, so Harsh, now joined in the middle by Matt, took… well, all of about three balls… to settle things down before lashing out in imperious style, pushing back the surrounding field. But for The Village it was no use as Harsh crashed ball after ball to all corners of the ground with an array of fours and sixes, bringing up the fifty in only the sixth over! Matt nurdled the ball around well and with neat running between the wickets never allowed The Village to settle.

However, with the score on 69, the onslaught came to a dramatic end as Harsh lofted another drive over the bowler’s head, mid-off rushed round to collect a very well taken catch in the deep, dismissing The Strollers’ feiry opener for a memorable 38.

As Gav walked out to the middle to join Matt, The Village now sensed that this could be their opportunity to find a way back into the game but whilst the boundaries were temporarily curtailed, the Strollers did well to keep the scoreboard ticking over with some quickly taken singles and twos. Matt, assuming the role of senior batsman, now took it upon himself to take the attack to The Village and in one over dispatched three well timed boundaries square of the wicket.

Having carried the total past the hundred mark with seven overs to spare, the batsmen still felt the necessity to push on but then Gav lunged forward at a ball from Reed, attempting to drive, and missed — allowing Dom to whip off the bails. Still Chris, in at six, was determined that this shouldn’t disrupt the march towards the winning line and continued to run the ball around until the Strollers needed only 7 off the last three overs.

Sadly Matt couldn’t quite hang on until the end and, having made an invaluable 31, was caught off Gupte. Still he had taken The Strollers close enough and it only took Mikey one ball to claim victory with a glorious six over mid on (typical) — earning the side a handsome win in which everyone had played their part.

With the disappointments of the early season now seemingly well behind us, the big question now is can The Strollers march on and claim a third victory on the bounce in this weekend’s local derby with Stumps. Surely, on recent form, the omens look good!

Stroll on!

Gavin Richardson
17.07.08

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