Scorecard

Chipperfield Clarendon v St Albans Cricket Club 4XI on Sat 09 Sep 2023 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 1 wkt

Match report On the hottest day of the year a youthful St Albans 4XI headed to Chipperfield. Pre-match talk in the dressing room centred on the overwhelming hope of batting first. Once a coin replacement had been found and which-hand-is-it-in completed, St Albans won the toss and chose to bat.

Opener Ahaan got a good delivery first ball and was bowled off his pads. Tom R and Ethan got the innings moving along, Ethan guiding a nice four through gulley. The outfield was slow and there wouldn’t be many boundaries today. Tom was confusingly caught at second slip by what looked like a bump ball. Imran replaced Tom R. He and Ethan were playing nicely, fending off their opening bowlers who were swinging the ball around, but Ethan got out for today’s mode score of 11, toeing an attempt to clear mid-off.

Imran and Tom B – who easily won the award for most-sweaty head – nurdled the first-change bowlers around but both were out for 11 in the space of two overs to the same bowler; Tom caught and Imran bowled. Will dusted off the cobwebs for his first match in over a decade, his bat a museum piece and the subject of much derision from his son. He hit the deck on at least two occasions whilst attempting pull shots which got a bit too big on him. Will and first-time-ever-skipper James held back the tide slightly and were helped in doing so by some very wayward bowling ensuring that Extras would be top-scorer. Sadly, scoring at two-runs-per-over isn’t judged to be entertaining these days and sensing dressing room disquiet Will skied one to an onrushing midwicket and James played across a straight one to be given out LBW by Tom B. In future, such behaviour will likely lead to fines or being demoted to second-change, Tom!

The final three wickets fell for 14 runs but seeing that there were eight more overs to be played, and the oppo clearly enjoyed fielding in the heat, it was agreed that we could recycle our batters and complete our 40 overs. Ahaan more than made up for his first attempt by scoring 18 runs, Tom used his dad’s bat for shots that it had never played before racking up 7 in reverse sweeps and Ethan and Sully took the total to an unlikely 156-14. At this point the agreement between the captains was for both sides to play 40 overs irrespecitve of the state of play.

In response Fin opened the bowling and what a start! The Chipperfield opening batter caught at the wicket with Will rolling back the years and taking a proper-cricket-wicket catch on just the second ball of the innings. Fast and accurate stuff from Finn who was easily the pick of the St Albans bowlers. Neel bowled a couple of overs from the other end and was replaced by Tom B who caught a screamer that was smashed straight back at him in his second over. In Fin’s sixth and final over his frustration following a drop at point on the second ball and a landing-between-two-fielders-neither-of-whom-look-like-they’re-catching-this on the fourth ball was made up for by a wicket on the fifth ball. Tom took a second wicket bowling straight through the gate.

Their number two and three batters both retired on 25 – a welcome but un-agreed upon change to the format – and with that brought a change in fortunes. James replaced Fin and in his first over took two wickets in two balls – HAT-TRICK FIELD! ABSOLUTE SCENES! Everyone gathered around the bat and the bowler made one just adjustment to the field - Neel was brought in a little from point. The hat-trick ball was cut over the head of short-point and would have been caught by a regular point. Gads! James was getting just enough movement and should have taken a skied caught-and-bowled chance but managed to stumble back into the wickets at the non-striker’s end whilst watching the ball, fall on his bum and drop the catch.

Imran bowled some tidy spin from the other end, taking a wicket in his first over which brought the the retired Chipperfield opener back to the wicket. And he dutifully continued where he left off knocking the ball around and making the fielders work.

At the drinks break it was agreed that should Chipperfield meet their target the game would be over when they beat the St Albans score. They clearly didn’t fancy batting for any longer in the heat than was necessary.

Sully, who had spent most of the innings in the captain’s ear asking when he could bowl – you have to admire his enthusiasm – replaced Imran and took a wicket with his first ball! An excellent catch by Benedict who had taken over the gloves from Will, catching a hot-potato of a ball at the second attempt. Chipperfield’s second retiree returned to the field and despite some good bowling from Ethan – who would have taken a couple of wickets had his fielders not been hamstrung by a setting sun and been able to see the ball coming at catchable heights at mid-off - blasted towards their total and eventually won by 1 run.

Were we handing out fines Sully would have received at least one. His chat with the umpire, asking why he hadn’t wided him for a particular piece of filth down the leg side was extraordinary considering we didn’t have many runs to play with!


St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 31w 12b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
45
156		        
Ahaan Dean Bowled  18 1
Thomas Rayden Caught  20 1
Ethan Witty Caught  15 1
Imran Ahmed Bowled  11
Thomas Banks Caught  11
A.N. Other Caught  3
Sulaiman Nisar Bowled  9
James Witty Lbw  5
Finlay Killner Bowled  3
Benedict Batty Caught  7
Neel Aswani Bowled  4

Chipperfield Clarendon Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Chipperfield Clarendon Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 11w 4b  
for 9 wickets
16
157 (30.0 overs)		     
Wakaz ct b. Fin 4
Scan ct b. Sulaiman 11
Aditya Not Out  25
Hafiz ct b. Tom 5
UK b b. Tom 7
Umer ct b. Fin 0
Arib b Imran 3
bertie ct b. James 4
Shelby ct b. James 0
Simran ct b. James 6
Janak Not Out  0

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Finlay Killner6.0028214.004.67
Neel Aswani3.002800.009.33
James Witty6.002036.673.33
Thomas Banks4.0020210.005.00
Imran Ahmed4.0016116.004.00
Sulaiman Nisar4.0125125.006.25
Ethan Witty3.002000.006.67