Scorecard

Abbots Langley III v St Albans Cricket Club 4XI on Sat 10 Jul 2021 at 12.00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 5 wickets

Match report After an unwelcome hattrick of defeats in recent weeks the 4XI travelled to Greenwood Park to face Abbots Langley in need of a win to break a wretched run of results.

Another day of steel grey cloud and threatening rain gave proceedings a subdued feel as the English summer resolutely failed to make an appearance again and the sunscreen was deemed unnecessary for yet another Saturday.

It was another bad toss to lose and once again skipper Andy Saunders duly lost it but somewhat surprisingly the opposition skipper opted to bat on a damp but drying wicket and Saints took to the field with a strong bowling unit.

James Church and Joe Button opened proceedings with the ball and immediately hit their marks with great control, and it wasn’t long before both bowlers had their first victims with the openers clean bowled and the number three bat gone shortly afterwards to Ben Adshead’s rapidly improving off spin to leave Abbots 3-10.

A battling partnership of 32 saw the batting side recover somewhat but the Saints bowling was too strong and despite some flurries of life they were dismissed for 96 , with all 6 of the bowlers taking wickets. Button’s 2-10 off 6 overs and Adshead’s 2-16 from 8 were the standout spells but Nadeem Arif with 2-24 and Faz Nisar’s dismissal of the last two batsmen in the same over to give him figures of 2-3 were also notable.

An achievable target then, and Saints strode to the crease with determination to get the job done with Alisdair Sargen and Faz Nisar opening the batting.

It wasn’t an easy pitch to bat on as the opposition had discovered and the St Albans pair found it tricky but put on a useful partnership of 32 before first Sargen (14) and then Nisar (15) departed in quick succession bringing Najib Khan and Naveed Ahmed to the crease. Khan dug in for a solid 15 off 38 balls and with the score ticking along things looked very comfortable.

But what would a Saturday afternoon be without a heartstopping St Albans batting collapse and this was duly delivered as the score lurched suddenly from 50-2 to 57-5 in the blink of an eye as Ahmed and Tom Wilton departed without scoring and the game swung towards the opposition whose tails were suddenly and understandably up.

Enter James Lawrence and James Church at 6 and 7 respectively to steady the ship. Lawrence played immaculately for his hard fought 22* off 42 balls with Church in a solid support role scoring 16*, valuable runs in the context of this game.

It was Lawrence with a leg side pull for 4 who deservedly hit the winning runs and secured a much-needed victory for Saints

Abbots Langley III Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
6w 3b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
11
96 (35.0 overs)		     
R. Stevenson b  Church 1
K. Hayer b  Button 3
C. Johnson lbw  Adshead 16
S. Clarke b  Button 0
A. Khan ct  Arif 26
V.Solomon ct  Adshead 9
J.Baldwin Not Out  22
A. Carter ct  Arif 5
J. Coward lbw  Saunders 0
S. Bower ct  Nisar 0
D.Carter b  Nisar 0

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Church8.0123123.002.88
Joe Button6.031025.001.67
Ben Adshead8.031628.002.00
Nadeem Arif8.0124212.003.00
Andy Saunders3.0013113.004.33
Faizan Nisar2.00321.501.50

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 9w 3b  
for 5 wickets
14
97		        
Alisdair Sargen ct  Soloman 14
Faizan Nisar b  Baldwin 15
Najib Khan ct  Soloman 15
Naveed Ahmed b  Soloman 0
Tom Wilton b  Soloman 0
James Lawrence Not Out  22
James Church Not Out  16
Ben Adshead  
Joe Button  
Nadeem Arif  
Andy Saunders  

Abbots Langley III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Baldwin8.0023123.002.88
Coward3.001300.004.33
Soloman8.011543.751.88
A. Carter8.012200.002.75
D Carter4.001400.003.50
R Stevenson0.20500.0015.00