Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Northwood III on Sat 08 Jul 2017 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won By 14 runs

Match report A season double over Northwood Town 3XI saw St Albans halt a disappointing run of recent losses with a fine win on Saturday.

Saints lost the toss (again) but were surprisingly put into bat at SLCG. Faizan ‘Faz’ Nisar and Dave Ashton opened and the early overs saw them batting cautiously against some accurate and nagging bowling. Some excellent shots were played, particularly by Faz, but he was unlucky in finding fielders each time. Ashton was caught behind off a corking ball for 6 with Nisar following soon after, bowled for 8. This brought young Wilf Rush to the crease, playing his first adult match for Saints, partnered by Tom Wyldes. Rush looked comfortable before a rush of blood after some patient batting saw him stumped, while Wyldes skied one and was caught for 7. At this point the score was low and wickets were falling at an alarming rate but cometh the hour, cometh the South African powerhouse Michael Martin who set about the Northwood Bowlers with relish. Initially paired with his countryman Stephen Coetzee -making his first Saints start for over six years - and then with ‘keeper Marcus Cunnington, Martin saw these partners come and go while compiling runs at a rapid rate. Joined by another southern hemisphere ex-pat Glenn O’Grady a solid partnership unfolded with Martin eventually run out for a fine 73 (his debut half century for the club) and O’Grady caught but not before registering 34 valuable runs. Jon Little and Andy Saunders came in to see the overs out and at tea Saints had 190 on the scoreboard, an excellent effort.

After a much improved tea Saints took to the field with Little and O’Grady taking the new ball. The Northwood openers had an attacking attitude from the off but Little had the skipper bowled early doors and the dangerous looking Pandey was trapped LBW by O’Grady. After the shine went off the ball it was time to take pace off and into the attack came Andy Saunders and leggie Tom Wyldes. With the batsman needing to keep up with the run rate Saunders and Wyldes kept it tight and bagged 4 wickets between them in their 15 over spell – 3 of them falling to Wyldes – which also featured two excellent catches by Martin in the slips. Fellow leggie Sammy Kumar and off spinner Faz Nisar replaced Wyldes and Saunders and saw the game out with some impressively mature bowling. A wicket each for the pair doesn’t tell the full story of what was a hugely important spell at the end of the game. Credit to wicketkeeper Marcus Cunnington too, no byes conceded in the entire innings (only 5 extras conceded in total for the St Albans bowlers, 2 of them leg byes) and a brilliant stumping off the bowling of Kumar. The Northwood innings came to end with a run out (Wyldes) in the 40th over and Saints had a vital 14-run victory.

A much need win after some disappointing results and against competitive but friendly opposition who played the game in an excellent spirit.

Next week sees the 4XI face top of the table Parkfield & Headstone.

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
12w 11b 6lb 
for 8 wickets
29
190		        
David Ashton ct Parmar 6
Faizan Nisar b Pandey 8
Wilf Rush st Harish 13
Tom Wyldes ct Gordhandas 7
Michael Martin Run out  73
Stephen Coetzee lbw Harish 9
Marcus Cunnington b Katira 2
Glenn O'Grady ct Mobeen 34
Jon Little Not Out  8
Andy Saunders Not Out  1
Sammy Kumar  

Northwood III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Parmar8.0224124.003.00
Pandey7.012000.002.86
Gordhandas8.0322211.002.75
Harish8.0024124.003.00
Mobeen6.0041141.006.83
Katira4.0042142.0010.50

Northwood III Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3w 2lb 
for 10 wickets
5
176 (39.3 overs)		     
P. Pandey lbw O'Grady 21
J. Bentzleuven b Little 1
H. Janardahnan ct Wyldes 29
K. Pearson ct Little 17
T. Katira ct Saunders 54
K. Gordenas ct Nisar 11
D. Harding st Kumar 19
M.Katira ct Wyldes 0
R. Kessel ct Wyldes 0
M.Mobeen Run out  14
M Parmar Not Out  1

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jon Little8.0132216.004.00
Glenn O'Grady6.0022122.003.67
Tom Wyldes8.0039313.004.88
Andy Saunders7.0025125.003.57
Faizan Nisar6.0124124.004.00
Sammy Kumar5.0028128.005.60