Taverners trumped by stunning Strollers in final T20
posted: July 28, 2016

We recorded two T20 wins on the bounce yesterday evening with a resounding 8 wicket victory over the Railway Taverners. With the match reduced to 18 overs per side in humid cloudy conditions at North Middlesex CC, we lost the toss but subsequently fielded superbly. Wickets fell regularly as we held onto our catches including stunning takes pouched by Abhik, Matt and Dave G, who notched up another contender for catch of the season when he held onto a lobbed half chance to backward point off Simon's final over — placating our tardy strike bowler somewhat, who had infuriatingly missed the first ten overs of the match due to heavy traffic.

However the real star of the show was Paul who, constantly tempting the Tavs' batsmen into playing false shots, collected a fantastic 5 for just 17. Paul's haul was probably the main factor in restricting the oppo to a meagre 127-8, although credit must go to the whole side for another fine effort in the field.

In response, aside from the early loss of Dave, our chase looked much like a formality. Gav got the innings underway well with a series of powerful offside shots before Tony Mitchell, guesting from the HICCs, hit his stride and began pummeling the ball to all parts. Gav was unlucky to play on to one that straightened from Powells, but made way for Matt who was happy to play a supporting role to Tony who powered his way firstly to an untroubled fifty. From there on Tony chanced his arm rather more and was fortunate to see a couple of looped leading edges go down but he deserved is luck and, as we romped over the winning line in the 17th over, he closed on a wonderful unbeaten 74, Matt also finishing not out on 18.

Whilst not quite the nail biter of last week's scenes, the win was no less satisfying and we walked off victorious to finish this season's T20 campaign on a high.

Gavin Richardson
28.07.16

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