Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Totteridge and Millhillians IV on Sat 07 Jul 2018 at 1pm
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 4 Runs

Match report An early start in a bid to accommodate the England QF against Sweden at 3pm saw skipper Andy Saunders lose the toss yet again to an opposition who opted to bowl.

Not a bad toss to lose as it goes with a fearsomely dry SLCG wicket only looking likely to deteriorate as the match progressed.

‘Manny’ Nisar (25) and his brother ‘Faz’ (29) opened the batting and built a decent foundation before Manny, who passed a milestone 4000 runs for St Albans CC with this innings, was bowled by a sharp delivery, which nipped back off the seam.

To the crease came the in-form Najib Khan who crafted a classy 39 but his departure and that of Faz precipitated another epic 4XI collapse. From 97-1 the team folded to 106-6 and then 123-8.

An obdurate last wicket partnership of 25 from Saunders and Marcus Cunnington saw the 40 overs out and dragged the Saints final total to 151-8, which still looked low.

It was agreed that tea would be taken at the end of the game due to the early start so a quick turnaround saw Saints in the field with Christian Hay and David Hancock opening the bowling.

Hay was immediately hostile and picked up one of the openers in his first over and although he kept his end tight and picked up another wicket with a fantastic catch at gully from Hancock, the runs started to flow and the opposition found their rhythm.

Once again it was the veteran pairing of Saunders and Dave Ashton taking pace off the ball , which slowed the run rate. Saunders took a smart catch off his own bowling and conceded just 12 runs in 7 overs but it was Ashton with 5 wickets for 29 runs in his 8 overs who stole the show.

With opposition wickets tumbling – 3 to brilliant stumpings from Marcus Cunnington- suddenly the game looked more winnable than it had any right to be at one stage.

With Saunders desperately trying to find the right bowling combinations to win the game Faz came into the attack and pinned down one end, while with just 11 runs required from the last 2 overs and with 2 wickets in hand Glenn O’Grady returned for a second spell.

With the opposition skipper at the crease O’Grady’s first 5 deliveries were hacked away for 6 runs before, with his final ball of the over, he snared him LBW.

Faz took the next over and, holding his nerve conceded just one run, so with 6 balls left and only 4 runs required O’Grady took the death over.

His first delivery was a near-perfect yorker, which smashed into middle stump and the game was won by the tightest of margins.

It’s been a tough season for the 4XI so far. Hamstrung by availability since May they haven’t had much to cheer about so the celebrations at the end of a game which saw them beat the team second in the league table and resulted in them rising off from the bottom of the table were well deserved.

This was a dogged, hard fought victory and hopefully the foundation on which a strong second half of the season can be built.

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
13w 2b 2lb 
for 8 wickets
17
151		        
Nauman Nisar b Bipin 25
Faizan Nisar ct JR Grewal 29
Najib Khan lbw JR Grewal 39
Bilal Siddique b JR Grewal 0
David Hancock b Waqas 8
Junaid Sharif ct JR Grewal 0
Christian Hay b JR Grewal 0
Marcus Cunnington Not Out  12
Glenn O'Grady ct JR Grewal 3
David Ashton Run out  0
Andy Saunders Not Out  13

Totteridge and Millhillians IV Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
JK Grewal4.002200.005.50
Bilwalal7.002300.003.29
Bipin5.0016116.003.20
Rahul 7.003000.004.29
Waqas8.0230130.003.75
JR Grewal6.012163.503.50
Smit2.00500.002.50

Totteridge and Millhillians IV Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
11w 6b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
18
148 (38.1 overs)		     
Kam ct Hay 0
Sho st Ashton 40
Japinder ct Hay 12
Jug-Raj ct Ashton 26
Munish ct Saunders 0
Bipin ct Ashton 4
Waqas lbw O'Grady 29
Rahul st Ashton 1
Bilawlal st Ashton 10
Smit b O'Grady 6
Jus - Karun Not Out  0

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Christian Hay7.0020210.002.86
David Hancock5.003500.007.00
Glenn O'Grady4.1020210.004.80
Junaid Sharif3.011900.006.33
David Ashton8.002955.803.63
Andy Saunders7.0112112.001.71
Faizan Nisar4.00600.001.50

  • Umpire :
    All of us
  • Scorer :
    All of us