Scorecard

Old Minchendenians CC 3rd XI v St Albans Cricket Club 5XI on Sat 04 Jun 2022 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 4 Wickets

Match report A rare away venture awaited the Club XI on Saturday, who arrived in the capital full of confidence, seeking back-to-back victories for the first time this season. After somehow managing to evade the downpour that the rest of the south-east seemed to have endured, the toss was loss and the Saints took to the field.

The openers hit the ground running - Townend getting a breakthrough with his first ball - with a little feather behind that Cunnington gratefully gobbled up behind the stumps. He then added a 2nd wicket a few overs later to cap off a fine bowling spell. Kleiner-Mann (Nathan) bowled very tightly and beat the bat on multiple occasions, conceding just 13 runs off his 6 overs.

Messers Brown (senior), who had kindly stepped in at short notice to make up the XI and Amess were next on to bowl and picked up exactly where the openers had left off - taking 2 wickets apiece in their spells. Brown bowled very accurately wicket to wicket on a consistent spot and Amess beat the bat continuously - often too good for the batter to knick, getting some effective movement off the seam. An opportunity for a hattrick came up too for him too.

Whilst the wickets tumbled with not a huge amount on the board, opener Kashyap continued to dig in and batted very sensibly, displaying some excellent shots on occasion. He was what was standing in the way of the Saints knocking them over for a low total, ankering the innings and proving tricky to overturn. Fin McNab's introduction put a quick stop to this - claiming the dangerman in his first over! For a well made 42. This was 1 of McNab's 3 victims, who was flighting things beautifully, which facilitated the champagne moment of the match: a strong knick behind seeing new specialist slipper, Townend's long right hand spring across horizontally to instinctively pluck the ball out of the air at a low height. Reactions that a certain Jonty Rhodes would be proud of. Alexis then finished the job off nicely, with Saints knocking them over for just 83.
An excellent collective performance in the field - all bowlers contributed with an even share of the wickets and tight bowling giving the oppo very little. And (other than a half chance) not a single dropped catch in the field!

So this hard graft meant it was a chasable target, but still a lot of work for the batters to do, on a unpredictable pitch at times that the oppo had struggled on.
After 2 early departures of openers Vikas and Kleiner-Mann (Josh), Cunnington and Brown Junior came to the crease under some pressure to bring some momentum into the run chase, faced with some enthusiastic young opening bowlers charging in full of confidence.
Both played very sensibly and managed some tricky pressure to get things ticking - Cunnington was starting to see the red like a tennis ball and was well supported by Brown at the other end. Brown departed, and after some more crunching boundaries so did Cunnington (28), guiding the Saints from 3-2 to 61-4 on what turned out to be a match-winning knock. Alexis and Kleiner-Mann (Nathan) departed shortly after, both to LBWs, not before Alexis had timed an excellent leg glance for 4 for one of (if not the) shots of the match. His departure though allowed new slipper Townend to enter the crease to help see things home, after confidently boasting to do just that. Melling took a single off the 2nd ball of the 26th over to bring the scores level at 83-6, offering the limelight to Townend once again. After teasing spectators negotiating 3 dot balls, Townend took the full responsibility on his shoulders and nailed a lofted shot over long on to see the Saints home.

Great effort from all 11 players, which enabled St Albans to achieve back-to-back clean sweeps!

Player of the Match: Marcus Cunnington - a vitally important innings from the returning student to get the Saints most of the way there in the run chase. Was watchful in the early stages to get himself in under early pressure, allowing for the extravagant stroke play to follow and the runs to flow. Well done Marcus!

Old Minchendenians CC 3rd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
12nb 8w 3lb 
for 10 wickets
23
83 (29.1 overs)		     
Kashyap ct  McNab 42
Aman ct  Townend 1
Nandan b  Townend 0
Pranay ct  M.Brown 2
Chandra b  Amess 0
Vasu ct  Amess 0
Murthy b  M.Brown 0
Paras b  McNab 2
Jay ct  McNab 1
Ramki Not Out  12
Amar b  Awonuga 3

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nathan Kleiner-Mann6.001300.002.17
Tom Townend4.001326.503.25
Barnaby Amess6.001829.003.00
Matt Brown6.011728.502.83
Fin McNab4.001133.672.75
Alexis Awonuga3.10919.002.84
Vikas Narula1.00300.003.00

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
13nb 3w 2b 5lb 
for 6 wickets
23
87		        
Vikas Narula lbw  Jay 0
Joshua Kleiner-Mann ct  Amar 1 1
Marcus Cunnington ct  Murthy 28 2 1 1
Oliver Brown b  Aman 3
Peter Melling Not Out  18 1
Alexis Awonuga lbw  Murthy 4 1
Nathan Kleiner-Mann lbw  Pranav 1
Tom Townend Not Out  9 2 1
Fin McNab  
Barnaby Amess   1
Matt Brown  

Old Minchendenians CC 3rd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jay6.0117117.002.83
Amar4.0110110.002.50
Aman6.0017117.002.83
Nandan2.001400.007.00
Murthy3.011025.003.33
Pranav3.0010110.003.33
Paras2.001000.005.00