The Dodgers arrived in Barn Elms to take on the might of the Fleet Street's finest on yet another roasting London evening. After previous hammerings at our expense (they turned up last year with 7 men and won), this time I can only presume they thought we were stronger, as they arrived with 9 players and only 1 wicket keeping glove. With regular captain Ralph probably the subject of an enquiry into late night drinking, Dollins headed to the middle to call the toss correctly and chose to bat first.
Dollin and Bose opened and looked relatively untroubled by the Strollers opening attack, punishing anything wide, with the ball racing to the boundary on the fast outfield. As the field started to spread, Mike was unlucky to pick out one of the few fielders left near the square but this set back was not to cause to many issues as Peters entered the fray and immediately started hitting boundaries.
The score had moved to 52 when the first of the Strollers 6 slower bowler options took a sharp caught and bowled chance. Unfortunately 52-2 became 57-4 in the space of 6 further deliveries as firstly Hoggins was left rather stranded by some rather unfortunate Inzi inspired calling and backing up by Peters. He was still unfortunate to be run out by a direct hit. Paul then headed in and somehow managed to top edge a ball travelling at 10 mph to the keeper who took an easy catch. To be fair he completed the catch using the Dodgers keepers gloves.
Despite these setbacks, Peters continued his good form with the bat and retired on 25 from 16 deliveries. Debutants Raihaan and Coutts both had to dig in as the bowling got slower but unfortunately more accurate. They succumbed trying to push the score along with scores of 21 off 29 and 10 off 17 respectively.
Towards the end, the Dodgers managed to up the run rate thanks to a quickfire 11 from 8 balls from Smulian and a particularly lively 24 off 13 from Pethick. The rumours circulating the pavilion were that he was clearly still reeling from the description of his previous innings as being gritty, which we believe rather unfairly that he may have interpreted as being dull.
The innings finished with the Dodgers scoring 155 which felt at the time that it was maybe 10 or so runs short. Special mention should got to Extras who top scored with 26.
The finer details of the Dodgers bowling efforts are reliant on the somewhat questionable judgement and memory of the Chairman, as this detail was not available at the time or writing.
Given the advances in communications that are now available and the widespread use of Play Cricket, it is perhaps ironic that a team whose roots lie in HMRC have embraced change at a more rapid rate than a team whose roots like in journalism.
Anywho, the paper reporting or at least a picture of it was not available to the author but what the Strollers might lack in technological advances is not matched by their speed of reporting which is perhaps encouraging. The writer therefore had the benefit of their analysis published on the evening of the game to aid his memory.
Hot on the heels of his less gritty innings, Pethick opened up with a good consistent spell of some overs and courtesy of the occasionally safeish hands of the chairman, nabbed at least one wicket.
Peters also followed up with a lively spell and was unlucky to not induce any edges and so the snicko/will you walk protocol was not required to be ignored this week.
The Chairman and Finn however, did not fair so well and whilst the number of wickets required was only 8, 3 of the Strollers batsman managed to retire on 25.
Cometh the hour, cometh the Bose. Satya bowled more economically and the run rate required started to creep up as the closing overs approached. The Dodgers were lacking wickets however it was clear, the remainder of the Strollers batting line up did not find scoring runs so easily.
The now lesser chuntering Hoggins was introduced into the attack and his variations kept the pressure up. It’s an interesting quirk of the retire at 25 rule that the Dodgers could at this point decided to spread the field and bowl wide of the increase in order to keep the aggressors in the hutch at bay until the run rate required moved into double figures and beyond.
Unfortunately however, having shelled a few chances for some the aforementioned high scoring batsman, this was the time of the match when the Dodgers decided instead to hold their catches and complete a run out.
This allowed two of the aforementioned retirees to return to the increase and despite the best efforts of the Chairman and Pethick, the Strollers completed their victory with 2 balls to spare with Pittams finishing on 39 and McCroddan on 31.
Yet another disappointing result against opposition who once again proved to be either much stronger or strong enough regardless of how many players they have available.
The Dodgers were left lamenting the dropped chances (as Mike might have mentioned on a few occasions in the pub afterwards), maybe just a few more runs from the middle overs, and maybe chancing some twos when settling for ones.
The Strollers also helpfully pointed out in their report that with 20 runs required from the last two overs, the spread field offered them plenty of chances for twos. From where I was bowling, it rather looked like they were trying to hit every ball to Kent so in the end, it really didn’t matter where the fielders stood.
So we look forward, if that is the right word, to crossing swords with the Strollers next season and just wondering how they will handicap themselves further in order to presumably make the game even closer and yet still win.
MOTM Results: Jack 8, Satya 1, Will 1
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