A new team for us , the Energy Exiles play at Nursery Road South Wimbledon – hope to see you there!
http://www.energyexiles.org.uk
Match report 13th September 2018 v Energy Exiles – game tied!
A late organised fixture saw Graces travel to Merton to play new opponents the Energy Exiles. On arrival at the venue our hosts were present as were another team claiming to have booked the pitch too!
This third team were pretty hostile from the start with no negotiation possible – at one point two sets of stumps and boundary markers were put up! A council parkie appeared and confirmed the double booking balls up – He was helpful telling us a nearby park had a pitch available which both teams travelled to.
This was at a nice park in Dundonald Road – another match was in progress and these teams were probably surprised to see us roll up and put stumps up on a pretty much unmarked adjoining uncut pitch. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and the game was reduced to 30 overs. Mahender won the toss and we were soon in trouble at 3 for 3 – Jonners runout without facing! The hosts bowling was spot on with lots of late swing causing us problems. Dom dug in and was joined by Ari – they both played well rebuilding our innings until Dom was LBW in the 13th over (17 runs) with the score at 42. The very green pitch was playing pretty well.
Newton in at 6 scored a patient 12 until he was caught – 82 for 5 in the 18th over. Leo in next soon found his rhythm with some trademark hard hit drives eventually being well caught for 23 – Ari now stepped up a gear adding to the flurry of boundaries – he mistimed a shot and was caught for an entertaining 46 – just short of a maiden 50! The Exiles tight bowling was a bit ragged now and we were all out for 136 in the 29th over – Ronnie adding a few vital runs at the end. After our disastrous start this total had seemed a long way off. The Exiles skipper ,Andrew, finished with 3 wicket for only 5 runs off his 4 overs.
After tea Graces picked up the first wicket in the first over – Arshad taking a nice catch at midoff. Attacking shots took Exiles to 32 in the 6th over before Iqbal was stumped by Scotty. Their number 3 (Hodgson) was batting well and their innings was built around him as the hosts at one point looked to be well on their way to victory reaching 100 in the 20th over (for 6 wickets) – only 37 needed in 10 overs
However we were bowling well , Newton only going for 20 in his 6 overs , and brought the run rate down – consequently the Exiles took risks and wickets fell – Hodgson scored a fine 43. The final over arrived with our opponents needing 12 to win with 3 wickets left – surely a tall order especially as it was now murky. When Mamun took an outstanding catch on the boundary 12 were needed off 4 deliveries – surely too much to get. However Ahmed in at 9 hit an enormous 6 followed 2 balls later with a 4. So 2 needed – a scrambled single off the final ball and it was a tie!
So fine bowling and good fielding really helped our cause – the wickets were spread around. As ever we had a great turn out of supporters and thanks once more to our super scorer Colin
So an eventful afternoon, initially looking like we had no game ,turned out to be a thriller. The Exiles are fine hosts and we will hopefully play them next season.
Next week is probably our last game – hope you can make it along.
