Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Pinner 2XI on Sat 02 Sep 2023 at 12:30
St Albans Cricket Club Lost 78 runs

Match report
The 4s season was recently described as ‘adequate’ by Life President Peter Mardle at the Presidents Day lunch and it’s hard to argue against that judgement.

Promoted last season the team has come to rest smack bang in the middle of the Div 9A table at the seasons end after a campaign of frustrating, rain-induced cancellations punctuated by joyous highs and deflating lows.

Having played out of the all-time great games against fierce rivals Broxbourne in week 17 when a last gasp , two run victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat , the final game of the season ended proceedings on something of an anti-climactic whimper.

Pinner, the divisional champions this year, turned up to SLCG with nothing meaningful to play for but with an impressive record of wins over the season. They were comfortable victors in the first leg and their strong line-up of batters and bowlers were never going to provide anything but a stern test.

Skipper Saunders duly lost the toss and Saints were dispatched into the field. On a damp’ish wicket that perhaps has lacked the care and attention it deserves this season it didn’t feel like the worst toss to lose.

The 4s Player of the Season for the last two years Ashish Dean opened down the hill with the ever-reliable Sam Davey bustling in from the Sandpit Lane end – a familiar opening combo this season and one that has provided consistently high quality with the new ball.

Ash made the first breakthrough; an impressive caught behind by wicketkeeper Tom Rayden standing up to the medium pacer, followed by a farcial run out soon afterwards. This became a theme of the Pinner innings – batsmen attempting to BBQ each other with appalling calling at regular intervals- though sadly not to the point where more wickets were taken in this fashion.

Ash finished his first six over spell with figures of 1-9 , with Davey doing a solid job at the other end and returning 1-20 off his six, his wicket a well taken caught and bowled.

This led to the arrival of the left handed Panchal to partner opener Dixit who was still at the crease and following the slow start made to the innings these two upped the run rate significantly , with Panchal punishing loose balls and demonstrating a brutal leg side game.

Saunders had come on first change and while creating chances – including a tricky caught and bowled and a strong LBW shout- his left arm over, slow bowling was favoured by Panchal who was able to work balls to the leg side boundary despite the bowlers repeated variations in line and length .

Winfield Snr. fared better and despite conceding a few hefty blows had more luck with his quicker outswingers conceding a creditable 3.25 an over off his 8 without reward.

Nadeem Arif was next into the attack and it was his trademark in-duckers that did for Panchal , a good catch in the outfied by Dean Snr shortly after reaching his half century sending the leftie back to the pavilion.

Dixit was still at the crease despite living a somewhat charmed life and it was perhaps fitting that he too was snared by Arif one run shot of his half century, which would have been a streaky milestone at best.

George Pelham was the next to come into the Saints bowling attack and despite some , ahem , ‘loose’ deliveries managed to snag a couple of wickets and with Ash Dean coming in to mop up the tail Pinner were restricted to 165-7 from their 40 overs .

A mention of the Saints fielding, which was very good with decent catches taken by both Deans, Davey, Arif and Rayden.

After the tea (during Saunders was mercilessly mocked for tucking into a Marks and Spencer’s salmon teriyaki salad), the less said about the Saints chase the better really - suffice to say, no one really got going apart from the Dean duo who notched a decent partnership before the season gently slid to a close as Saints batsmen came and went with regularity, three ducks and no one reaching double figures comprising the 7 seven wickets. All out for 87 with Saunders stranded on his now customary 0* at the end.

There have been some memorable performances and matches for the 4s this season, their first in Div 9A since promotion last year and there remains a healthy squad of both senior and junior players ready to step into the fray. Finishing mid-table in a strong field is no disgrace and an end of term report of ‘adequate’ is accepted as a perfectly reasonable assessment.

Next season though the 4s will have loftier ambitions.........


Pinner 2XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
5w 7b 2lb 
for 8 wickets
14
165 (40.0 overs)		     
Dixit ct  ct Dean b Arif 49
Carter ct  ct Rayden b Dean 5
Davies Run out  0
Choksi ct  C&B Davey 7
Panchal ct  ct Dean b Arif 51
Lawrence ct  ct Ahan Dean b Pelham 11
Fong b  Dean 3
Deshwok Not Out  13
Bonywell ct  ct Dean b Pelham 0
Waha Fang Not Out  8
Evans  

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ashish Dean8.0120210.002.50
Sam Davey6.0020120.003.33
Andy Saunders8.014000.005.00
Tim Winfield8.012600.003.25
Nadeem Arif5.011628.003.20
George Pelham6.0024212.004.00

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 3w 1b  
for 10 wickets
5
87		        
Nauman Nisar Bowled  8 1
Ashish Dean Lbw  31 4 3
Ahaan Dean Caught  19 2 1
Thomas Rayden Caught  5 1
Sam Davey Caught  0
Toby Crisp Caught  8 1
Uttam Vijender Caught  4
Nadeem Arif Bowled  0
George Pelham Caught  4
Tim Winfield Caught  0
Andy Saunders Not Out  0

Pinner 2XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.