Scorecard

Harpenden IV v St Albans Cricket Club 3XI on Sat 26 Jun 2021 at 12:00 midday
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 3 wickets

Match report From top to bottom, St Albans 3s batsmen were to blame for another embarrassing reverse, this time at the hands of Harpenden.

Losing the toss, but in any case batting first, Saints were quickly in trouble as Harpenden's bowlers tested patience from the start. At one end, Dearman bowled with great line and length, while at the other, Umar shaped the ball away from a good line just enough to force batsmen to play. The pair bowled unchanged, finishing their spells with Saints in all sorts of bother at 5/29. It did not get much better from there. Murray did his best to thwart the threat, and Curran swung hard to - relatively - good effect, but a miserable total of 68 was all the team could show for it's efforts, feeble as they were. Fair credit to the hosts' bowlers throughout, a solid unit.

There was but a glimmer of hope at half way, as Saints' fine bowling attack prepared to take on another fragile batting lineup. Given a rousing rev-up by Humayune, Smith (2/13) and Broxton (3/16) quickly had the Harpenden top order in disarray, exemplified by opener Robinson choosing to leave one that Smith had tracked to the top of off. To add to Broxton's three wickets and Smith's brace, a run out compounded Harpy's woes as they found themselves at 6/19. With Malik and Curran now threatening the batsmen, there were some anxious looks from those on the sidelines. After untangling themselves from the idiosyncrasies of the scoreboard, the onlookers next increment to the wicket column saw the tally at 7/32 after Curran smashed through the batsman's defences - Saints were in with a real chance. Buoyed by the fightback, the fielding was sharp, and support for the bowlers keen, as a number of close appeals were denied, resulting in just a little too much consternation.

Unfortunately the conclusion is already apparent. Hughes and Umar restrained themselves for the most part, ekeing out a single here and there, and occasionally finding the boundary, though more by fortune than by design. The target crept closer as this pair stayed solid and ultimately there was relief in the Harpenden camp as the target was achieved.

This was as good a performance in the field as the threes have offered in many years, the willingness to fight it out admirable; as Ralfe noted afterwards, "we should act like we're defending 60 every time".

With the bowlers having shown the way, next up it's the batsmens' turn to show the resolve that wins matches. If the 3s can put the two halves of the game together, they will be tough to beat.

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 2lb 
for 10 wickets
7
68		        
Nauman Nisar b Umar 7 1
Alisdair Sargen ct McNeil b Umar 2
Humayune Hussain b Dearman 4
Saqib Malik ct McNeil b Umar 1
Stuart Murray lbw b Robinson 15 1
Nick Ralfe ct - b Robinson 6 1 1
James Lawrence b Marven 1 1
Joey Curran b Robinson 17 2
Thomas Broxton Not Out  3
Andrew Walker ct McNeil b Robinson 4 1
Charles Smith lbw b Marven 1

Harpenden IV Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Dearman9.05924.501.00
Umar9.041836.002.00
Marven5.3025212.504.55
Robinson5.011434.672.80

Harpenden IV Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 4w 1b 1lb 
for 7 wickets
9
69 (34.3 overs)		     
Robinson b Smith 4
Krish b Broxton 0
Williams lbw b Smith 5 1
Marven b Broxton 8 1
Tullet run out Ralfe/Lawrence 0
McNeil lbw b Broxton 0
Huntley b Curran 7
Hughes Not Out  14
Umar Not Out  22 4
Field  
Dearman  

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charles Smith9.021326.501.44
Thomas Broxton9.021635.331.78
Saqib Malik8.03600.000.75
Joey Curran8.3131131.003.65
 
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