A mauling vs Jaguars

Our two games on Tuesday morning were against the reigning champions Catalunya Jaguars, who have had quite an upheaval of their squad since December and started the tournament very slowly. Some last-minute additions saw them play better at the weekend but they were still there for the taking. Or so we thought… I’ll keep this one short as there’s not much to write home about!

Game 1
We didn’t even win the toss, with Shriram Bhosale’s weighted coins (allegedly weighted coins, lawyers) failed him, The Jaguars chose to bat and flew along throughout the innings. Tom Coulthard finally took his first ECN wicket in the fourth over getting their dangerous opener and captain Haider out for 33. Every over, bar one, went for at least 12 runs as the Jaguars went about racking up a big score. Shriram bowled his second over in the ninth, and despite it lasting 12 balls he only conceded seven runs and got a wicket, after Ash Reynolds "Alex Careyed" his opposite number Qasim Ali. Jaguars finished on 153/2.

We couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start, with only four coming off the first two overs and both openers being dismissed in that second over. The third and sixth over provided a bit of something about but apart from those two the first seven overs went for three runs or less. James Bentley (30*) and Tom Coulthard (27*) provided some fireworks in the final three overs but it wasn’t even enough to reach the 108 target to get the losing bonus point. We finished on 100/4.

Game 2
This time Shriram did win the toss and chose to bat. Imran Fareed was back for the second game and opened up with Ash but it didn’t go much better. Both were back on the bench within seven balls which did at least bring together two of the brighter sparks from the first game in Umer Razi (40*) and James. They got the scoring going a bit more for the next couple of overs before James holed out. Ali Warriach (45*) came in at 5 and the two batted out the remaining 6.1 overs to take us to something resembling a competitive score - 116/3. 
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The Jaguars’ chase was once again helped by a whole heap of extras and some out of character wayward bowling. Imran and James did at least manage to control the scoring a bit in their first overs and they were 52/2 after four overs. Smelling the chance of stealing the bonus point, Jaguars went for it and hit 67 in 2.5 overs from there to take it from us with a ball to spare. Tails between our legs, there was not much else to do but applaud our opponents, who comprehensively outplayed us in both games. 

We move on to play the Catalunya Dragons on Thursday afternoon. Having started the tournament late, they are still yet to get their first win. They’ll be two crucial games in our fight to reach the next round.

​Sam Phillipps