Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Broxbourne 3XI on Sat 24 Jun 2023 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 7 runs

Match report St Albans 4th XI returned to the home of Hertfordshire cricket this Saturday for a crunch fixture against last season’s fellow promoted Broxbourne. Previous meetings with this team had been close fought battles, with plenty of competition and one league complaint thanks to a rather sore loser Broxbourne captain. With this backdrop the game was set up to be tight and expectations were high.

Despite the heat, the pitch at Sandpit Lane was surprisingly green, and therefore Captain Saunders was sent to toss with firm team backing that bowling first was the right idea. He promptly walked back from the middle declaring it was a “good toss to lose”, the 4s would bowl anyway.

Trusted with taking the new ball were Dean and Winfield, a classic 4s duo with as much weight and gravitas as the Anderson and Broads of this world. Down the hill Dean started the innings with his trademark line and length and showed good pace. On multiple occasions he would look too good for the Broxbourne openers, who did their best to keep the barrage at bay. Dean’s first five overs of his spell would go for just 8 runs, a brilliant start to the day. At the other end Winfield bowled his iconic swing, moving the ball both ways from the start. He too would tie the Broxbourne openers in knots, and picked up the first wicket of the game in the 11th over, a sharp catch at slip by Glazier.

The first change to the bowling saw Davey introduced from the top end, and he immediately generated chances, an edge going straight through slips in his first over. This would continue as the Broxbourne batters struggled to get any sort of grip against the bowling, but the occasional loose ball would allow them to score. Davey’s spell also generated one of the chances that St Albans would live to regret, a catch going down off the set batter on 20, a player who would go on to score a third of Broxbourne’s runs. At the other end Arif was introduced, and bowled well, following off where Winfield had left. Despite finding good lines Arif would end his spell wicketless, the two Broxbourne openers clearly choosing to build a platform rather than attack the early St Albans bowling.

Drinks came and Broxbourne found themselves at 64-1, struggling to score at much over 3 an over, very much down to the accuracy of the early St Albans pace bowling attack. St Albans had generated multiple chances but failed to take them, and for this reason Captain Saunders decided a spin attack would be the way to go after drinks.

Rajiv replaced Davey from the top end, following on from his brilliant bowling display the week before, he bowled with nice length and good turn, and on multiple occasions beat the bat of the Broxbourne pair. From the other end Saunders also entered the attack, bowling his left arm spin. This troubled the Broxbourne pair, and like his bowling counterpart beat the bat on multiple occasions. Despite the strong bowling, the Broxbourne set batsmen were able to accumulate and ran between the wickets very well, helped along the way by some sluggish St Albans fielding at times. In the next 10 overs they would double their score, 128-1 by the 30th.

The introduction of Spellar (named Stella in the ccorebook) would bring the eventual second wicket for Broxbourne, bowling their opener who had batted well for 55. Saunders then picked up two wickets from the other end, both caught - one a sharp take from wicketkeeper Toby Crisp standing up to the stumps , the other a brilliant grab by Spellar at fine leg, the young man really showing the standards that should be expected of his team.

Glazier was also brought into the attack, and immediately struck with two wickets of his own, the Broxbourne middle order looking to accelerate the run rate in the latter stages of the innings. They would end on 183, a score that looked about par on the wicket, however St Albans will feel this is significantly more than they should have allowed. Dropping their set batsman, allowing the runs to accumulate in the second half of the innings at 6 per over due mainly to a lack of fielding intensity, would these factors come back to haunt the team?

Trusted to open the innings for St Albans were Dean and Street, who were instructed to build the innings and run hard, in the same way the Broxbourne openers had. There was immediate good signs for Street, who hit a lovely four to start the innings and a couple of good shots for two. But it would be running that caused the downfall of the opener, a skied shot being dropped by the bowler, but both batsman ending up at the same end following a communication mishap. Street Run out for 8. At the other end Dean looked to bat long following his partners demise, he batted for the majority of the time before drinks, accumulating runs and hitting 3 fours on his way to a well-built 32.

Khan had joined Dean after the first wicket, and looked to build the innings as well, picking off the bad ball when it came and getting 47 runs in total. He hit multiple shots that were deserving of more runs, but a combination of picking out the fielders and a slow outfield meant scoring was slower than Khan’s ability deserved. Khan looked deserving of 50 when he was unfortunately caught, but an innings that should have set up the response for St Albans. At drinks St Albans found themselves just shy of the run rate, but with wickets in the hut an expectation that the rate could be accelerated was set.

After drinks the wickets of Dean and Khan brought the arrival of Arif and Glazier to the middle, both of whom would look to score to try to push the rate. However, it wouldn’t last long for the pair, Glazier getting a feather through to the keeper off the bowling of the Broxbourne captain. Arif would also fall victim of the Broxbourne captain, who was probably the pick of their bowling on the day. This flurry of wickets brough Crisp and Davey to the crease in the last ten over, needing 8 an over to win the game for the team. After a quick discussion they decided they would look to run hard and wait on the bad ball, 8 an over was achievable with sensible batting. Crisp looked strong in the middle, able to pick off the bad ball and accumulate a very nice 18 runs which rotated the strike constantly. At the other end, Davey was in belligerent mood and dispatched the bad ball in his first few overs, hitting 3 fours in his pursuit of the win. The pair ran wall, and with 3 overs to go had left the score needed at 23.

Unfortunately, Crisp would then be bowled on 18, an innings that had brought St Albans close to their target. Rajiv would join Davey at the crease with the instructions from his partner being “4 or nothing here mate, no point in blocking it”. The last 3 overs would prove frustrating for the pair, with the introduction of a new bowler restricting the runs and not allowing Rajiv to free his arms, he would be bowled on 4. Winfield strode to the crease at this point, hoping to rotate the strike, but the bowling was good and accurate, the penultimate over going for not many. With 14 needed off the final over Davey would hit the first ball for 2, but then be bowled on the second. Speller walked to the crease at 10, and immediately dispatched the ball for 4, a brilliant shot. However- it was too little too late for St Albans, falling 6 runs short of their opponents.

A brilliant game of cricket all round, which could have gone either way until the last moment. St Albans will rue their fielding performance, which allowed too many singles and twos, dropped too many chances off set batsman and allowed Broxbourne to score in the second half of the innings too freely. The team batted well in the chase, but unlike their opponents allowed too many dot balls and missed chances to turn singles into twos. St Albans will look forward to returning to Broxbourne later in the season.

Broxbourne 3XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 1w 4b 10lb 
for 7 wickets
18
183 (40.0 overs)		     
R Irwin b  Speller 55
T Preston ct  ct Glazer, b Winfield 14
S Fryer Not Out  59
G Kay ct  ct Crisp, b Saunders 1
H Smith ct  c&b Glazer 18
N Fountain ct  ct Speller, b Saunders 5
D Melis ct  ct Khan, b Glazer 0
A Glasberg ct  ct Glazer, b Dean 0
C Catherol Not Out  4
   
   

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ashish Dean6.0118118.003.00
Tim Winfield8.0116116.002.00
Sam Davey5.002600.005.20
Nadeem Arif4.001900.004.75
Rajiv Surendranath5.003200.006.40
Andy Saunders7.0034217.004.86
Jamie Speller3.0015115.005.00
B Glazier2.001125.505.50

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 11w 13b 4lb 
for 8 wickets
31
176		        
Ashish Dean ct  ct, b Smith 32 3
Samuel Street Run out  8 1
Najib Khan ct  ct, b Picker 47 5 1
Nadeem Arif ct  ct, b Smith 4
B Glazier ct  ct, b Smith 1 3
Toby Crisp b  b Picker 18 1
Sam Davey b  b. Irwin 27 3
Rajiv Surendranath b  b. Irwin 4
Tim Winfield Not Out  0
Jamie Speller Not Out  4 1
Andy Saunders  

Broxbourne 3XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
D Melisi8.013100.003.87
Catherol4.002100.005.25
Picker7.0041220.505.86
Smith8.011836.002.25
Glasberg7.003000.004.29
Preston4.001400.003.50
Irwin2.01623.003.00