Scorecard

Kenton v St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI on Sun 09 Jul 2023 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 60

Match report St Albans beat Kenton by 60 runs

An earlier meet time than usual set by skipper Lawrence had Sunday 1s players at Clarence Park at the dizzyingly early 10:45, ready to embark on the long journey down to Kenton. Barring Baylis (who woke up at 10:42), Krish (who decided to get the bus to the game, arriving after the first ball was bowled), and JC (“how did you find the ground, it’s impossible”), the Sunday 1s arrived to see a cricket ground strongly resembling a postage stamp, wondering if we were indeed at the wrong place and had turned up at Kenton’s under 9s ground. Toss done, toss won, bat first.

Murray and Murphy strode to the crease, with the latter promising to coach the former through his innings. The ball moved around early, with the oppo skipper hooping it into the right hander. Murray departed, timing one straight to cover, and this fired up Murphy, who lofted the opener over his head for four (perhaps a gym session required for next week…). He soon after perished, bowled trying a similar shot.

Krish was not fazed by the early wickets and was eyeing up the short boundary. Putting away anything loose but also punishing perfectly reasonable bowling, he brought up his fifty in no time at all. Highlights included a flat straight six which barely got off the ground, hitting their opening swing bowler over the neighboring houses and his final strike rate, which sat at 175, a brutal knock of 84 off just 48 balls.

Law joined Krish and got some abuse early on (Murph deciding that his strike rate wasn’t up to standard from the sidelines). He reached 32 off 20 balls, including a six into the nets, before Krish got into the summer spirit and decided to light up the barbecue (the chat about no quick singles ignored in the heat of the moment). The run rate was through the roof, but wickets were tumbling quickly. Time for a captain’s knock.

Lawrence and Church were set a platform but batting all 45 overs was vital on what seemed to be a 350-par wicket. It’s rare that a knock can be defined as slow when striking at 100, but Lawrence stuck around, not playing any loose shots and waiting for bad balls from the opposition off-spinner, who was reasonably tidy. Both stayed out there for a while, steadily keeping the scoreboard ticking. Church got into his stride as he realized that with his levers, he could cloth the ball on that boundary and it go for six, but went for one big shot too many, departing on 46. No jug today. Lawrence went at a straight one, his first lapse of concentration. Out for 42. Two good knocks.
Mistry was tasked with shepherding the tail through the rest of the innings, looking serenely unbothered as he manipulated the field expertly, not looking to overhit like some of the Saints batters previously. He watched Berry, Adshead and Baylis come and go (Baylis looking like he’d never seen spin bowling before), controlling the strike well and playing some nice cover drives. JC came to the crease and first ball played the shot that was his undoing the previous day. 4 runs. Wrong day, Joe. Mistry decided that he wanted to keep the strike, and kept playing his game, getting to 49 without breaking a sweat. Blissfully unaware of his runs tally, he ran past one from the spinner. Stumped. 296 all out. An innings that included 14 sixes (8 from Krish), but still one that looked like it would take some defending.

After an impressive tea, Baylis and Curran were entrusted with the new ball. Baylis bowled off his short run, taking a wicket in his first over, caught well by Murray in the gully (shame his girlfriend had left not long previously). Getting some good swing, perhaps inspired by his idol Brad Currie, he bowled with a lot of control, taking a second wicket of their number 3, who had well and truly doored it, to the extent that we had a short leg in in a 7 an over chase. JC started nicely, getting their opener out for a duck on his second ball, a pretty bad day out for the man (2 overs 0/35 then a duck…). He controlled his lines so well that the skipper deemed a 9-0 off-side field. It started well, with a lot of chances coming (Law not helping his figures with a drop), but JC was hooked after going for 666 in his last three balls. Don’t bowl there.

Krish came on and immediately found his lengths, getting the captain out after some colossal sixes, caught by Sam Mistry superbly (Sam somewhat of a ball magnet, taking 4 catches in the deep, with one genuine speccy), taking 1/33 off 7 overs, some figures on a pitch that small. Adshead partnered him at the top end and bowled with excellent control, going at 4s bowling at their big hitters, and giving them absolutely nothing, dotting up their struggling number 7 (who was being reminded of the required rate at regular intervals by Law and Baylis). Adshead castled the number 7, and finished with 1/41 from his 10, figures that don’t justify how well he bowled.

Berry came on and his first over was tucked into by the oppo number 6, the last remaining bat who could win them the game. Most of the saints had switched off a little, more captivated by the game on the neighboring wicket. 94 run 9th wicket stand to win the game. Well batted. This lapse of concentration affected Murphy at mid-off, dropping a catch that could well have sealed victory. Berry didn’t look too impressed. However, Lucas found his rhythm, bowling a superb spell of death bowling, keeping lines tight with no slot balls, cleaning up the tail, aided by catches from Krish (“promise I caught it”), Law, Lawrence and Mistry (again), reducing the opposition to 236 all out.

It was a superb bowling performance on a small ground, and the fielding was also very respectable. Lot of positives to take from the Saints, and a good way to open our winning account for the season.

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
8b  
for 10 wickets
8
296		        
Stuart Murray ct Unsure b R Patel 1 15 6.67 1
Adam Murphy b D Assani 19 24 3 79.17
Krish Dhanuka ct Unsure b M Patel 84 48 5 8 175.00 1
Rory Law run out  (M Patel) 32 20 3 2 160.0 1
James Lawrence b R Patel 42 41 3 102.44 1
James Church ct Unsure b R Patel 46 42 1 3 109.52 1
Sam Mistry st R Kadecha b P Shah 49 37 4 1 132.43 4
Lucas Berry b R Patel 0 9 0
Ben Adshead ct Unsure b R Patel 3 6 50.0
Dan Baylis ct C Purohit b K Patel 6 13 46.15
Joey Curran Not Out  6 4 1 150.0

Kenton Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Dylan Assani10.0255155.005.50
Ravi Patel10.0054510.805.40
Chirag Purohit2.003500.0017.50
Pranav Shah4.1042142.0010.08
Waaris Deen10.005100.005.10
Mihir Patel5.0040140.008.00
Krunalkumar Patel2.0011111.005.50

Kenton Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 10w 7b 11lb 
for 10 wickets
29
236 (43.1 overs)		     
Chirag Purohit ct J Church b J Curran 0 5 0
Bishan Shah ct S Murray b D Baylis 0 2 0
Vinay Halai ct S Mistry b D Baylis 21 42 3 50.0
Krunalkumar Patel ct S Mistry b J Curran 35 33 5 1 106.06
Waaris Deen ct K Dhanuka b L Berry 83 81 3 6 102.47
Dylan Assani ct S Mistry b K Dhanuka 28 17 4 164.71
Rikin Patel b B Adshead 11 36 1 30.56
Ravi Patel ct J Lawrence b L Berry 18 21 3 85.71
Raj Kadecha Not Out  9 15 1 60.0
Pranav Shah ct S Mistry b L Berry 1 2 50.0
Mihir Patel ct R Law b L Berry 1 6 16.67

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Dan Baylis10.0042221.004.20
Joey Curran8.0157228.507.13
Krish Dhanuka7.0033133.004.71
Ben Adshead10.0241141.004.10
Lucas Berry6.103949.756.32
James Church2.00600.003.00

  • Umpire :
    All
  • Scorer :
    All