Sunday XI v Fleet Street Strollers 27th May 2018

M&B made it four losses on the spin as they were defeated in the final over by 3 wickets on Sunday in a ten a side game against regular opponents the Fleet Street Strollers. Skipper Armstrong lost the toss but was inserted by the opposition, so no real need to toss then! Two new openers were tried by Armstrong, with Sean Phillips-Williams being pushed up to open alongside the venerable Michal Parkinson jnr, making his belated first appearance of the season. Sean got off to a fast start mainly feasting on the offerings of Williams, who tending to bowl too short. Sean always strong on the drive was able to pull and hook with gay abandon, one of which went the whole way for 6 as it hit the drive fence on the full. Parky played himself in and was surprisingly quick between the wickets, and happy to accept Sean's calls for quick singles. As always Parky was graceful on the drive and happy to pull and drive / cut off the back foot. M & B by far posted their best opening stand of the season as the partnership galloped to 70 before Parky hit one into the off side and immediately pulled up lame, with a dodgy ankle and immediately headed for the pavilion on 15no. No. 3 Dan Callieu came in to support Sean but the partnership was nipped in the bud as Callieu called for an ambitious two and saw the bails whipped off as he was only three quarters down the wicket. The normally reliable Gunbarul only scored a single before he was castled playing off the back foot,this left M & B still reasonably placed at 75/2 after 14 overs. M &B now looked to their main batters, Sean and Benjamin Howard to form a large pivotal partnership. Although they put on 23, this wasn't the partnership M & B were hoping for as Sean played back to spinner Timperley and missed whilst played across the line to be plumb lbw. That said Sean had posted a maiden Sunday fifty(52), which contained 6 4's and a 6 and had carried on the good work from his top score in the league the previous day. The introduction of slow lobber McCorley led M & B into a tailspin as their batsmen were unable to handle the tantalising flight. Tifler tried to force the first couple of deliveries through the off side only to hit the fielders then tamely spooned the ball straight to the cover fielder. At the other end Le Clerq tried to sweep spinner Timperley and lost his balance and was stumped. All along Howard remained and played a number of fine drives, dabs and a sweep to keep the score ticking over. Alas even he became unstuck against the wiles of McCorley as he tried to sweep and looked behind him forlornly as he was bowled. Swapnil Manchanda was lbw to McCorley as well to leave M & B at 133 with only one wicket left. Sunday debutant Jamie Newell and skipper Armstrong managed to post 17 serenely as they rotated the strike, alas a misunderstanding meant Newell was run out leaving M & B out for a very much below par score of 150, which was aided by 28 extras, wides being the main culprit. Again M &B's inability to bat out overs again proved costly as they only lasted into the 31st over. McCorley ended up with figures of 3-31 off 7 overs.

Yet again M&B looked to their bowlers to bring them back into the game. Benny Howard from the River End and Jamie Newell from the road End were entrusted with the new cherry. Howard bowled the great rhythm and often beat the bat , Newell on the other hand couldn't find any rhythm and bowled a number of wides. Skipper Armstrong brought himself on from his favoured Road End to try and wrestle the initiative back in M & B 's favour. The Strollers posted fifty for the first wicket as they batted serenely along. Armstrong managed to hit a line and length from the off but opener Calvocorresi lined him up and smashed him to the mid-on boundary. Armstrong's response was to put the mid-on back and the opener again attempted the same shot only to find the composed Howard under the high ball, as he swallowed the chance easily. Swapnil Manchanda replaced Howard and together with Armstrong began to squeeze the run scoring. Armstrong struck another blow for M & B by castling opener McDougall with a slower ball, well that's how the batsmen saw it! It was really Armstrong's exhaustion ball, he lacked the energy to get the ball to the other side of the pitch with any speed! Manchanda got a lucky wicket with a short pitched ball which kept low and castled Timperly. Manchanda did deserve some luck though as he delivered a controlled spell of slow bowling. The Strollers still ticked the score along but at a greatly slower pace. The spell of Armstrong in tandem with Manchanda delivered Armstrong figures of 8/2/14/2 and Manchanda 8/1/24/1. Armstrong turned to Howard to finish his spell from the River End and tasked Alexander LeClerq with bowling a controlled spell. Howard complete his luckless spell with figures of 8/1/23/0 and Le Clerq delivered his best spell of bowling for the Sunday X1. He was able to hit a length with consistent away swing. He only pitched one ball short in his spell and allowed Armstrong to have only two fielders on the leg side. Gunbarul replaced Howard and soon nipped out two Strollers, both times beating the batsmen's defences to castle them. In the end it came down to just 2 off the final over and Oliver hit the third ball for 4 to bring the end to an enjoyable game of Sunday cricket in warm sunny conditions. Gunbarul nipped in with two wickets in his four overs and Le Clerq finished a controlled spell with figures of 7.3/1/27/0, not getting a wicket which he richly deserved.