Hats off to the Royals

We headed into our third-last day of action knowing we needed to start getting some wins, although we had three of the best teams to face still. Today’s task was Royal Barcelona, who were flying high at the top of the group. 

Game 1
Shriram Bhosale lost the toss and we were put in to bat. Ali Osama got us off to a decent start with 16 off the first over but the other two powerplay overs would only see us score 16 between them. Ali (24 off 11) was caught at cow corner at the end of the third over and a mini collapse would occur, as we went from 30/0 to 36/3 in 7 painful balls. A better partnership would form between current captain and former captain Umer Razi, although he wasn’t hitting quite as cleanly as he might have liked at the start. Shriram was also caught at cow corner (26 off 9). Umer stepped up a gear although he lacked a big-hitting partner. He finished on 40* from 20 balls and we scored an underpar 122/6 against a strong batting line up. 
​
Despite some luck and thick edges, the Royals matched our powerplay score within two overs. James Bentley did get a wicket next ball, but they continued their onslaught throughout the rest of the over and the start of Anish Shindore’s fourth over. He did manage to get a wicket with a beautiful slower ball, although the umpire was less keen on his now legendary celebration. Two more wickets fell in the next two overs, one to Vishesh Gajjar and one to Zeeshan Dildar but the Royals were still heading to a bonus point win. They fell just short of that fortunately for us, finishing the game after 7.1 overs. A total of 122 was never going to be enough against them, so we did well to get a point out of it.

Game 2
The Royals again won the toss, but decided to bat this time. The first over went for 26 but Vishesh removed the dangerous opener in the second over. Despite being hit for two sixes after that, the 13 runs he conceded would be the most economical over for a while… James got a wicket in his first over but this only began a rapid 95-run partnership. Kieran O’Donnell was unlucky in the fifth over, as he had both batters dropped in an eventful, and according to commentator Vinny “decentish”, over (wide, wide, 6, drop, 6, drop, 6, 6). It wasn’t until Vishesh came back in the ninth over, with 200 looking very possible, that we regained some control. His over went for only nine runs and finally ended the partnership that had been going since the third over thanks to a brilliant one-handed catch by Anish at long-on. Khyzer Nawaz came on for his first ECN bowl in the tenth, and amazingly only conceded three runs and picked up his first wicket off the final ball. They finished on 182/5, almost definitely still out of our reach but we had at least still avoided conceding 200 in the ECS. 
​
Needing 128 for the bonus point, Ali got us off to another good start. 20 was scored off the first over that had the commentator daring to dream, and Ali himself dancing. Sadly, the other end didn’t go so well. The second over started with a hattrick and only went for one run and that all but wiped out any slim chance of a win. Jon Wong was then run out at the start of the third before Ali and James put on a partnership. Ali was eventually dismissed for 41 (off 19) when he toe-ended one to mid-wicket. Disaster struck in the next over as a second hattrick of the innings was taken and we went from 70/4 and a good chance of the bonus point to 75/8. The efforts of James and Vishesh weren’t quite enough, and we finished on 114/9, after James was comically bowled by a off-cutter long-hop. 

One point from the two games wasn’t quite enough or what we needed. Our next games are on Thursday against Pak Barcelona. 

​Sam Phillipps