A thoroughly depleted team took to the field (there were 43 players unavailable for this fixture) & were given a practical demonstration of how far Black Rose had come since the last fixture 1996 when Pacific won a low scoring game. That's to say Pacific's XI may well have been weak but would have expected to have given that XI a game which was certainly not the case with the 2003 version.

Another improvement was the pitch which gave little lateral or variation in bounce & anything off line was severely punished

Latham (26) & Keith (43) began at a brisk 5 an over against Bastin & 8-0-42-0 & debuatant Jennings 8-1-39-2 who were respectably economical but it was the change bowlers who took most of the hammering Szuman 9-0-76-0 & Lay 8-0-74-1, added to some dropped catches although none was made to pay more than John Hill's who parried Misha'a first scoring shot over the long on boundary for 6. Unfortunatly for him & Pacific he went on to make 150 not out !

In reply the batting fell between the stools of reaching a respectable total thereby conceeding the game, & that of giving it a genuine go. Hollman toped scored with 32 but only Jennings (28) & Marshall (14) got into double figures as the overwhelming continued. Marshall's dismissal caught brilliantly by Hazan put Pacific out of their misery leaving the selectors to hope that the return in September does not incur the same selectorial misery.

Stand in 6th choice Captain afterwards said "It was about as miserable an afternoon's cricket you could have on a perfect Summer's day. I knew we had a weak underbelly as 7 wickets for 8 runs proved, but this was a thoroughly demoralised XI by the time we got to bat & only 1 or 2 players can be truly happy with their contribution.. I was very impressed with their batting - left hander Mishran was awesome. It's now down to the 1st choice players to make themselves available & address the balance in the return in September"

& Here's the report from their man on the scene Felix Middleton....

Black rose of Highgate's Andre Mishra scored a breath-taking 150 not out in only 71 balls helping his side cruise to a 242 runs victory over Pacific cc on Sunday. Winning the toss and electing to bat first, Roses opening batsmen Keith 26 and Sam Latham 43 looked very impressive against some hostile bowling. But it was the introduction of captain Mishra in the 18th over that totally changed the game, and had the Pacific bowlers running for cover Smashing them to all parts of the Highgate wood ground, hitting 13 sixes and 11 fours in the process and with Ben Woodside's 45 and a quick fire 44 not out from Shah, amazingly saw the Roses set a record 338/3 in there allotted 40 overs.

In reply early wickets by Felix Middleton 3/17 and Rommel Lahiri 3/14 dashed any hopes of a pacific come back with only Hollman 32 and Jennings 28 making any inroads in the massive required total. Keith 2/3 wrapped the game up and ended a demoralized pacific 96 all out in the 24 over.

XI:- Pete Czabotar, John Hill, Matt Holliday, Peter Hollman*, Ian Lay, Tim Marshall+, Matt Patel, Rob Bastin, Shaun Cochrane, Ted Szuman, Seb Jennings.