Ploughmen plunder Strollers to secure revenge
posted: August 19, 2024
Having suffered a chastening loss at their home ground in Dulwich back in June, Ploughmans CC rolled out their big guns to mete out their revenge upon us yesterday with a decisive 7 wicket win in the return fixture at Old Camdenians.
Although Spencer called correctly and chose to bat first on a fine sunny afternoon, it soon appeared to be a bad toss to have won as Ploughmans' front line bowling attack simply tore our top order apart. At drinks we were reeling on 76-6 and, although several Strollers made a start, nobody managed to score more than twenty with Saurabh, Kash, Dickie and Spencer all falling in their teens. We eventually limped to 138 when our last wicket fell with more than three overs to spare... never likely enough to defend.
We restored ourselves somewhat with another fine tea from Trudy and after the resumption were buoyed by the early dismissal of opener Mickey when Kash, returning for his first outing of the season, managed to skid one through in his opening spell. Débutant Varun Garg also got in on the act to collect his first wicket when Baveas scooped one up to Avnish but from then on it was all one way traffic. Opener Iqubal opened his shoulders and had just made it to fifty before driving one off Saurabh straight to cover where Gaurav took a skillful catch. Alas that was to be our last hurrah as shortly thereafter Ploughman Stanley hoisted a straight six to bring up not only his own half century but also victory for the oppo in only the 21st over.
Not our finest performance then and afterwards we rued that for once we had a full XI at our disposal when we bizarrely found none other than Pakistan test international Mohammad Amir skulking around the boundary with his kids. Had we been short we might have drafted him in and things might have turned out rather differently. Oh well... he'll never know what he missed.
Gavin Richardson
19.08.2024 scorecard >> |