Scorecard

Lutonian II v St Albans Cricket Club 3XI on Sat 24 Jul 2021 at 12:00 midday
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 7 wickets

Match report The Threes' hopes of promotion in 2021 appear to have disappeared after a disappointing reverse at the hands of Lutonian.

With the forecast threatening thunderstorms, it was a pleasant surprise to arrive at Wardown Park to find a dry wicket and outfield. The hosts won the toss and elected to bowl first, which suited Saints, with the wicket looking likely to deteriorate.

Lutonian, themselves pressing for promotion, got into their stride quickly, bowling accurately to tie down openers Nisar and Murray, aided by a slow wicket that was staying low. After 17 overs the score had crept to just 28, with the top three dismissed. Ralfe hung around a little while for 16, twice sweeping fine to the boundary, but he, Law and Malik all fell to unnecessarily aggressive strokes. Wilton was then run out without facing a ball, the second week in a row that a Threes batsman has suffered this ignominious fate. This left Saints at 7/57. There followed an eight over respite from the wicket chaos, before Winfield joined forces with Sargen at 7/71. Under instructions to bat out the overs, this pair stayed solid through to the 45th over, showing resolve that those higher up the order hadn't managed. With Sargen finishing on 23 and Winfield on 19, the total had been lifted to a just-about-defendable 115.

After tea - still BYO, unfortunately - Winfield swung on into the pads of Kumar to nab a wicket first ball, and followed with another in his second over. At the other end, Malik was proving a challenge. Could Saints find a way to victory after all? Saunders was swung into action, and knocked over Ahmed's stumps. At the other end, Sumair was looking too comfortable with the bat, and in Haider found a resolute partner. Malik frequently beat the bat, but for all his efforts, couldn't take the wickets his team needed. Despite a variety of bowling options being tried, it was a struggle to see how the wickets could be taken, unless the batsmen decided to "do something silly". Of course, they did nothing of the sort, marching swiftly to a well deserved seven wicket victory.

Saints' top six batsmen will be frustrated with their efforts and the consequences were obvious in the result. Opposition skipper Siraj commented later that his side hadn't come across a team in the League with the ability to play straight as Saints top order showed, but the failure to channel this ability was quite an indictment of the batters' execution.

Never mind, on to the next fixture.

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 9w 1b 3lb 
for 8 wickets
14
115		        
Nauman Nisar b Kumar 9 42 1 21.43
Stuart Murray ct - b Saad 8 24 1 33.33
Humayune Hussain ct - b Saad 0 8 0
Nick Ralfe b Haider 16 38 2 42.11
Rory Law b Kumar 11 12 2 91.67
Saqib Malik ct - b Kumar 9 9 1 100
Alisdair Sargen Not Out  23 76 2 30.26
Tom Wilton Run out  0 1
Andrew Walker ct - b Saad 4 20 20.0
Tim Winfield Not Out  19 40 1 47.50
Andy Saunders  

Lutonian II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Huzalfa9.04919.001.00
Saad9.031735.671.89
Kumar9.0136312.004.00
Haider9.0223123.002.56
Malik5.011400.002.80
Haq4.011200.003.00

Lutonian II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2w 1b 1lb 
for 3 wickets
4
116 (26.1 overs)		     
Sumair Not Out  68 13
Kumar lbw b Winfield 0
Nasir ct Wilton b Winfield 2
Ahmed b Saunders 17 4
Haider Not Out  23 3
   
   
   
   
   
   

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Saqib Malik9.041300.001.44
Tim Winfield4.001929.504.75
Andy Saunders5.1019119.003.68
Andrew Walker3.001500.005.00
Rory Law4.002400.006.00
Nick Ralfe2.001800.009.00
 
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