After last week’s comprehensive win, Southgate welcomed Alexandra Park to the Walker Ground with promotion still very much on the cards. For the second week running I lost the toss and, somewhat surprisingly on a hot day, Alexandra Park elected to put us into bat. Perhaps they had done their homework after we’d been skittled for under 60 twice in a row a few weeks ago and thought they could have a piece of that action. However, the Southgate batters had other plans.
Rory Miscampbell and Mustafa Mirza got us off to a flying start on what can only be described as a road. The recent dry weather had made the outfield so quick that once the ball beat the infield, it absolutely flew.
The first wicket fell at 40 before Rory was joined by in-form Liam Collett. Liam looked in excellent touch before unfortunately getting an inside edge onto his stumps.
From there, it became the Rory show.
He looked in complete control from the outset, rotating the strike intelligently, punishing anything loose and finding gaps all around the ground. There were crunching cover drives, classical straight drives and some outrageous pull shots, three of which disappeared for six. With the amount of time Rory spends in the gym, those biceps finally proved they were good for something other than carrying protein shakes.
He brought up a superb fifty without ever looking troubled and simply carried on in the same fashion, combining clean hitting with excellent running between the wickets. Before long he reached a thoroughly deserved century, and there was never any sign of him slowing down.
He was well supported by Ollie Bellwood, whose excellent 36 helped add nearly 80 for the fourth wicket, before Kazi Hasan contributed a valuable 18. Pasoon Rahman then arrived and announced himself by depositing his very first ball into the distance for a huge six, adding a quickfire 10.
As Rory sailed past 150, attention turned to whether he could reach the magical 200. With one over remaining he needed just five more. First ball of the final over, he drilled one towards long-off and immediately called for two. I turned and ran harder than I probably have all season, convinced I wasn’t making my ground anyway. Unfortunately for Rory, Alexandra Park’s fielder produced what was probably the best throw you’ll see in Second XI cricket, firing in a flat rocket to the keeper to run him out by a couple of yards.
It wasn’t quite the double hundred, but 196 is an innings very few of us will ever witness at any level of cricket. It was a masterclass in stroke play, temperament and controlled aggression, and one that deserved every round of applause it received.
Southgate finished on 317 from our 50 overs.
With that total on the board, we were confident our bowling attack would be more than capable of defending it.
Binty set the tone brilliantly with an aggressive opening spell, mixing hostile short bowling with fuller deliveries that repeatedly beat the outside edge. He also managed to soften up the openers by rapping gloves and ribs on more than one occasion, but somehow finished wicketless despite thoroughly deserving at least one or two.
Will came up the hill for the first time this season and also bowled with excellent control, beating the bat on several occasions without quite finding the edge.
Despite carrying a very sore shoulder, Collo battled through 15 overs of off-spin from one end, keeping things tight and giving us exactly what was needed. Unfortunately, he too couldn’t quite find the breakthrough his efforts deserved.
To Alexandra Park’s credit, they never threw in the towel. Equally, they never really looked like chasing 318. Their priority quickly became batting out the 50 overs rather than keeping up with the required rate.
I tried just about everything from the captaincy handbook, changing ends, rotating bowlers in short spells and trying different combinations in search of wickets. The biggest moment came when Pasoon struck twice in an over, giving us hope we could expose the tail, but the pitch remained an excellent batting surface and wickets were hard to come by.
Alexandra Park eventually closed on 189 for 6, meaning Southgate took five points from the game.
While it was slightly frustrating not to claim maximum points, it was another excellent team performance and keeps us firmly in the promotion race.
The obvious highlight was Rory Miscampbell’s magnificent 195, an innings that everyone at the Walker Ground will remember for a long time.
Sam Faruqi
You can watch Rory’s post-match interview with our overseas player Hugh Hyselop on The Rocket Factory here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Da8phq3oFXV/
And watch highlights of the innings here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbJC5x8g_8b/