Graces pummeled!
Away to Hawks CC – lost by 108 runs
A sunny afternoon saw Graces take a trip to new opponents in north London. On arrival a heavy roller was busy on the green looking strip. Our hosts chose a 35 over format with anything legside a wide. The toss was lost and Hawks batted first with one of the openers bearing a resemblance to a robust Gordon Greenidge.
Graces took the field wearing black armbands in recognition of Dom’s loss. Newton and Assad bowled with the latter managing a maiden over first off (one of the only two we managed all afternoon!)
Unfortunately things didn’t progress as smoothly for us as the batsman showed a lot of aggression and soon got the score going at an alarming rate. All we could do was try to contain them but anything short was dispatched. A couple of drops didn’t help our cause with Mahender finally taking a good catch in the deep to see Mr Thomas (Greenidge) out for a rapid 45. The score was then 90 – 5 runs later Mamun bowled Shivon, the other opener for 38.
Graces breathed a sigh of relief to see the back of them and when Scott took a smart catch to see the number 3 ,Hammond, out for 14 Graces had managed to reign in the free scoring Hawks. However the left handed number 4 bat (one of 4 Lords in the team!) initially rode his luck dropping short of the field a few times before renewing the aggression with some cultured drives. Wickets fell regularly at the other end but Mr Lord continued to an entertaining 50 until Newton finally bowled him for a top score of 53.
Again we were made to pay for dropping him a number of times. A few overs later the innings was over with the score at 209 for 9. At one point a far higher score looked possible. Mahender , twice on a hat-trick , was the pick of our bowlers finishing with 3 wickets for 15 off 4 overs. We didn’t bowl badly but anything loose seemed to be pounced on.
After a filling tea Dom and Newton opened our reply – unfortunately they were both soon back with the score at only 8. A bizarre 4th over saw Phillips bowl a succession of wides most of which were run adding a handy 18. Their skipper kept faith with him changing his end with a remarkable improvement.
Niroshan , in at 3 , showed good positivity taking the attack to the Hawks taking the score to 42 with Mahender before Mahender was caught in the deep. Luck didn’t go our way as nothing fell short of their fielders. Niroshan was eventually bowled for a top score of 27. Wickets fell steadily as Hawks kept the pressure on with tight bowling. Manish hung around for a patient 16 before we were all out for 101.
So our biggest defeat of the season against strong opponents. Our bowlers didn’t give up with a good fight back after the initial batting onslaught but we’ve definitely had better days with the bat!