Llamas turn to deliver the goods

The Llamas opened their 2021 Surrey Slam T20 campaign with a home fixture at St Albans Road against the Hermes Hombres CC works team from Redhill on a cold Tuesday evening.
Hermes openers James Hunt (no gags permitted about Racing drivers and Couriers drivers) and captain Paul Darville started steadily against Llama opening bowlers Srikanth Vuppala (4 overs 1-15) and Callum Gurbutt (2 overs 0-19) and had reached 34 in the 6th over when Steve Cross (3 overs 1-19) bowled Paul Darville (14 including a 4 and a 6).
Next over and Srikanth got Rizwan Munir (6) lbw to leave the Hombres 41-2. Srikanth involved again in the next wicket as he caught opener James Hunt for 17 to give Ollie Harris a wicket in his opening (11th) over and Hermes CC were 62-3. No addition to the score as the next wicket fell to Tristan Cossey (4 overs 1-13) as TJ had Hombres vice captain Haroon Dass lbw for 3 for 62-4 in the 12th over.
A brief recovery from the Hermes Hombres as Ata Khan (15) and Neil Mosley (13) took the score to 90 in the 17th over when Ollie Harris got the 5th wicket (4 overs 2-22) when Shane Cossey caught Ata Khan. In the last (20th) over Manoj (2 overs 2-12) bowled both Nathan Downes (6) and Sohail Qamar (2) and the Hermes Hombres inaugural Surrey Slam innings ended at 111-7 including 28 wides.
Alex Wilbraham and Srikanth Vuppala opened the Llama reply at a run rate of about 10 an over against the Hermes opening bowlers Paul Cox (3 overs 0-25) and Ata Khan and had reached 40 in the 4th over when Srikanth was out for 19 caught by Nathan Downes off the bowling of Ata Khan. Alex continued to push the run rate along at about 10 an over but in the 6th over with the score on 56 he lost partner Brijesh Patel (1) caught behind with a fine one handed catch from Hermes captain Paul Darville for Ata Khan’s 2nd wicket (3 overs 2-31).
The scorecard was now being littered with wides and at 2 runs each time this reached 30 runs and by the 9th over with the score on 93 Rizwan Munir (2 overs 1-24) had Alex Wilbraham lbw for an excellent 38 including 8 fours. Michael Ramsden joined Tyler Shoare and it was Tyler (23 n.o.) with 20 runs off 5 balls of the 9th over from Haroon Dass (1.5 overs 0-33) who took Llamas home by 7 wickets at 113-3.
Being a works team the Hermes Hombres may well find it tough going against established Cricket Clubs but we wish them every success in their new venture and hope they find their feet in their forthcoming Surrey Slam fixtures.