Scorecard

Hertingfordbury v St Albans Cricket Club 2XI on Sat 25 Jul 2015 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won

Match report Who'd have thought five hundred runs scored the day after a month's rain fell in 24 hours and another win in the bag for the Saints.

On the sort of warm, sunny, mid summers day beloved of all Anglophiles, the boys arrived, very pleasantly surprised to find a fairly hard, grassy but dry pitch. It had been covered all Friday during torrential downpours. The usual debate about batting or bowling first was settled when skipper Uttam Vijender won the toss and decided to bat.

Hertingfordbury were somewhat confused by this but little did they know we had a cunning plan, which was to score at fives or sixes throughout the innings. Aaron Jones compiled a well paced and fluent 121 with some crunching shots, over pretty much the full 50 overs. He never looked in trouble. He was well supported by Ruan Erasmus, Ian McKinlay and Chris Hodges and after 50 overs the skipper declared with Saints having put on 268.

After a top quality tea, during which Afroz Khan monstered about five flapjack slices single handedly, Saints took to the field. Hertingfordbury rewards a fuller length where the grass helps the seamers with nip and a good carry, but anything short sits up. Our bowling was generally a bit short and Hertingfordbury kept up a good run rate, but the difference was they lost wickets regularly.

Joe Clouting bowled beautifully in two spells of controlled left arm seam bowling, he probably deserved more than his four-for.

Uttam Vijender made amends for his batting (clothed a pie to cover for a golden duck), taking 4 for 40 with his swingers.

To their credit Hertingfordbury kept going until the last and were finally bowled out some 30 runs short with about five overs left. Uttam definitely left the field with a few extra grey hairs given the tension but in truth we won by a decent margin. Matt Imgham's performance in the field was noteworthy - he probably saved twenty runs on his own. Hodges also had some great takes down the leg, standing up, there were quite a few, a learning point for our bowlers.

Ultimately this was a really good game of cricket, more deserving of the usual three men and a dog who were watching, with Uttam's barmy army keeping marching on on its well established winning streak.

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 22w 6b 3lb 
for 8 wickets
32
268		        
Stuart Murray ct T Bellings 23 4
Aaron Jones ct Harley 121 16 2
Matthew Ingham ct T Bellings 0
Ruan Erasmus b Ryder 24 5
Ian McKinlay ct Harley 47 8
Uttam Vijender ct Harley 0
Chris Hodges st Harley 13 3
Amit Rajani ct Harley 7
Afroz Khan Not Out  1
Joseph Clouting  
James Dempsey  

Hertingfordbury Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Murphy8.012800.003.50
J Bellings7.005000.007.14
Harley10.0055511.005.50
T Bellings12.0160230.005.00
Ryder8.0139139.004.88
Bryden4.002700.006.75

Hertingfordbury Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 16w 7b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
26
238 (44.4 overs)		     
T Rymer ct Clouting 2
T Billings ct Clouting 47
T Wigglesworth ct Clouting 0
S Ranner b Clouting 0
J Billings b Rajani 66
A Preston ct Vijender 3
S Nesbit b Vijender 0
J Bryden ct Vijender 59
R Murphy Run out  1
T Harley ct Vijender 15
S Ryder Not Out  6

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Dempsey3.003300.0011.00
Joseph Clouting13.023147.752.38
Afroz Khan3.003300.0011.00
Amit Rajani12.0162162.005.17
Uttam Vijender9.4040410.004.14
Ian McKinlay4.002100.005.25