Stop Press: First Mandarins Victory of 2017
Our correspondent writes: A first victory of the season at Streatham and Marlborough yesterday. They scored 225-5 in 40 overs. We reached the runs for 4 wkts in the 39th over, despite having been 14-2. The powerful Mandarins middle order came to the rescue - Brand (62) and Tunbridge (79) shared an excellent 136 run partnership for the third wicket, then Arvind (24*) and Baxter (32*) saw us home.
Full report to follow....
Well it was a long time coming, but finally there is a
2017 Mandarins victory to report.
It came against that notable South London club Streatham
and Marlborough Cricket Club. Streatham won the toss and batted, with Hurst and
Eastway taking the new ball for the Mandarins. Both bowled well; Martin in
particular could have picked up a very early wicket when a low chance to
Pharaoh at slip went begging, the first of several tricky chances to go astray.
At 30-0 after ten overs came the first bowling change. Robin Pharaoh found that
one of the openers (inevitably the one he had dropped) rather liked his bowling
and the scoring rate accelerated somewhat. Cooke (2-35 off 8 overs) and
McIntyre (2-51) both bowled well, and Hurst further distinguished himself by
taking two catches. For Streatham Gibbens scored a very good 92, before falling
to Dan Forman, whilst Taper hit a quick 39* at the close. Streatham reached
225-5 off their 40 overs.
Fortified by a most excellent tea (for the record, chips
and pastries featured heavily) the
Mandarins began their reply. Pharaoh was promoted to opening (“I will aim to
keep up with the scoring rate”); he scored 4. Dominic Herrington was cruelly
bowled first ball by one which rolled back onto the stumps.
But if the beginning of the innings was weak and wobbly,
what followed was strong and stable. The left-right partnership of Brand and
Tunbridge took charge: Sam struggled at first, but got better and better over
time and played the shot of the day, a clip off middle stump to the midwicket
boundary off the Streatham skipper. Graeme played great shots all round the
wicket. Both ran very well. Streatham tried 9 different bowlers (and three
wicketkeepers) in their quest for the breakthrough. The score had reached 150
when Sam fell for 62. A tiring Tunbridge followed run out for 79 on 170. Baxter
(32*) and Arvind (24*) then put on a quick 50 partnership to take the Mandarins home to complete a 6 wicket
victory in the 39th over.
A final word of
thanks to Streatham who never tried to close the game down. An overs game
played in a timed game spirit.
Tim Baxter