Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI v Hemel Hempstead Town VI on Sat 20 May 2023 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 161 runs

Match report Notable Performances: A Melling (62), M Shadwick (53), F Killner (3-4)

The 5s were due to belatedly start their league campaign this weekend but potentially after hearing of the depth of talent at skipper Cocks’ disposal St Margaretsbury wisely withdrew from the fixture. This left us without a fixture until a last minute friendly was arranged with Hemel 6s. Under glorious skies at Sandpit lane and on an Astro-turf pebble dashed with bird leavings Cocks won the toss and elected to bat.

Hemel’s team absolutely packed with youth got off to a strong start dismissing opener Webber for 1. Cocks then played a dynamic innings at 3 scoring 28 with 24 of those coming from boundaries while Shadwick ably rotated the strike at the other end. Once Cocks perished middling one to gully who took a very sharp catch we sent in our own youth policy in the form of Jude Berry. Shadwick and Berry ran very well and kept the score ticking along nicely and 3 balls before drinks Shadwick brought up his maiden 50 for the season! Two balls before drinks Shadwick was bowled and Melling came to the crease. Following a slight bedding in period where 11 runs were scored off 6 overs, Cocks provided a coded message to Melling that perhaps he might like to get on with it. Never one to ignore an instruction Melling and Berry upped the rate and got us into a very strong position before falling for 62 and 41 respectively. Hadden, Speller and McNab all chipped in ably in the last few overs to get us to 242 for 6 from our 40. A very solid early season performance with the bat.

But it was with the ball that St Albans truly excelled with the opening partnership of Killner and Banks too good for the Hemel top order as the top 5 registered scores of 1,3,0,0 and 0. At that point Cocks made the decision to ease off, bringing on Narula with instructions that he should bowl a probing 4th or 5th stump line so that we might prolong the contest. Narula tried this tactic for one over but then reverted to full balls on middle stump which immediately rewarded him with two further wickets. Hadden was brought into the attack on debut to calm things and calm things he did, in a display some say showed great control and discipline and others say was really quite boring. The first 23 balls of his spell were dots, the 24th and final ball was a long hop pulled away for 4. Cocks turned to spin after this which the Hemel batsman took a bit more of a liking to, the Hemel captain registering his team's only 50 before a great piece of work from Speller and Cocks saw him out stumped. Once Berry and McNab had also claimed wickets Cocks turned back to his opener Banks to take a deserved wicket and finish off the game.

A great day out for the 5s with solid performances from everyone, a healthy boost in confidence prior to the real stuff (hopefully) commencing next week against Little Berkhamsted Sahibs.

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
8nb 6w 8b  
for 6 wickets
22
242		        
John Webber b Jonah L 1
Matt Shadwick b Farhan 53
Tom Cocks ct Jonah L 28 1
Jude Berry ct James 41
Andrew Melling ct Ashaz 62
Tom Hadden b Hendry 11
Jamie Speller Not Out  21 1
Fin McNab Not Out  3
Thomas Banks  
Finlay Killner  
Vikas Narula  

Hemel Hempstead Town VI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ashaz8.0051151.006.38
Jonah4.0022211.005.50
Tyler5.002200.004.40
Hendry6.004600.007.67
Aviv7.0051151.007.29
Farhan6.0222122.003.67
Vim2.001900.009.50
James2.0022122.0011.00
Neil1.001100.0011.00

Hemel Hempstead Town VI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 2w  
for 10 wickets
3
81 (2.6 overs)		     
Marlon Run out  1
Aviv b Finlay Killner 3
Tony b Vikas Narula 0
Vim b Finlay Killner 0
Tyler b Finlay Killner 0
Neil st Jamie Speller 56
Jonah b Vikas Narula 0
James b Jude Berry 2
Ashaz b Tom Banks 16
Henry b Fin McNab 0
Farhan Not Out  0

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Finlay Killner3.00431.331.33
Thomas Banks5.31919.001.64
Vikas Narula4.01723.501.75
Tom Hadden4.03400.001.00
Jude Berry3.0029129.009.67
Jamie Speller3.0018118.006.00
Fin McNab3.0010110.003.33