Sri Destroys Strollers

Srikanth the Destroyer obliterated the opposition for the second week in a row. He walloped his way to a maiden Cavalier century, scoring 104 off a wonderfully paltry 71 balls. Against a handy bowling attack, he was still able to score a remarkable 19 fours, cruel on any errors in length or line. Overpitched, and it went up and over to the boundary. Too short, and it was laced through the covers for four more. Sri’s batting is wonderfully simple, wonderfully effective and wonderfully entertaining. Under such an assault, Earlswood understandably lost control of the game early on. Michael Ramsden helped Sri add 146 for the 1st wicket, scoring 39. When Sri reached his century he tried to retire, but the oppo were rather upset with the idea. This was a bit rich coming from a team who had two centurions retire on us last year, but their tetchiness was understandable, given the beating they were taking. Unfortunately for them, it was not over, a very strong Cav middle order was able to spank 150 runs from the last 18 overs. Ant Ireland rattled up 77, Adam Sixsmith 34 and Chris Morgan 38, all three scoring with ease and deserving of a better write up than this but I have used up all my superlatives on Sri.
The total of 314 was massive, the Cavs would normally never take an oppo apart like this, but, like I said earlier, they battered us last year, and they did not seem to take well to the idea of Sri retiring, so may not have appreciated an early declaration. However, the game was over by tea, which is not the point of a Cav game and there was little to be done to make the second innings interesting. The Earlswood openers tried, finding the pitch as friendly to batters as the Cavs had, but once Brijesh Patel made the breakthrough, their middle order could not push on. Brij continued his fine progress as a bowler, his tricksy swingers taking 3 for 25 and ensuring the Cavs their victory. All hail Srikanth the Destroyer!