Depleted Graces spanked!
Due to injuries and holidays a depleted Graces arrived at Addington’s charming ground in south London on a cloudy but warm afternoon. We were down to 9 and upon losing the toss were invited to field – Tony and Tom (once more) gamely fielded for us. We had a great turn out of supporters once again.
Addington’s capable openers then compiled a useful stand of 59 before the first wicket fell in the 16th over, Manish bowling Amjad the number 2 for 19 – more about him later. Shafi the other opener and the number 3 , Miah , then batted aggressively upping the scoring rate without giving any chances taking the score to 197 in the 37th before a flurry of late wickets left the final score at 215 for 4. Shafi finished on an unbeaten 116. Mahender picking up 3 for 42. We bowled well but seemed to be doing a lot of chasing on the fast outfield.
After tea Mendis and Dom opened – Mendis signaled his intent with some nice pull shots until he was bowled for 16 in the 6th over – 27 for 1. Niroshan drove nicely for 15 until he was caught in the covers with patient Dom being bowled for 16 – 3 for 54 in the 16th over. Mahender and Manish took the score to 75 before both falling.
The 23rd over was the killer for Graces as Leo was caught behind, the next ball Jonners played on and the Matthew was then LBW – a hat-trick for Amjad – this left us at 88 for 8 and pretty much game over. Jonners and Matthew were reminded of the fickleness of the game after last week’s match where they had managed to hang around for ages!
Assad in at 6 had seen the carnage at the other end but still played his usual positive game. Colin now joined him to bravely see off the home bowlers – when Assad was eventually bowled for 26 our hosts generously allowed Matthew to go in again at 11.
We made it to the 31st over before Colin was bowled for 1 leaving us all out for 116 so a 99 run loss. Everyone then retired to the appropriately named Cricketers pub for a refreshing drink. So honours even after we won last season – it’s a concern that despite a lot of work we unable to get a full team together and will have think about how far into September we play.
It’s north London next week with our second trip to Winchmore Hill.