Scorecard

Redbourn III v St Albans Cricket Club 3XI on Sat 27 May 2023 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 6 wickets

Match report The 3XI faced a trip to Redbourn on what was their first away day of the season, following Week 1’s washout to now league leaders Old Cholms. With 30 points in the bag at the first time of asking against Hitchin last week, Redbourn could have no doubt as to our intentions to repeat this feat when the majority of them arrived to see 10/11 Saints (Tooley turns up when he likes apparently) already going through a warm up routine befitting of a professional outfit, with one Redbourn player heard remarking in disapproval that this was “so extra”. West was thrilled to hear this, and noted it as an early victory in the mental battle.

After the Redbourn skipper double checked we were in fact St Albans 3s, the coin fell in his favour and he chose to bat.

Church and the returning Winfield Jnr took the new ball, with the latter not succeeding in his quest to nab the downhill end. After having alpha’d his senior bowling partner, Churchy bowled with the confidence you would expect. He started with a maiden, then went one better in the next claiming his first wicket of the season. He would add another to his tally later in his first spell, finishing with 2 for 8 off 6. A great effort with very few, if any, bad balls on offer to the Redbourn batters.

At the other end, J Winners was regularly beating the bat but found no luck grinding up the hill. For fear of his hamstrings and general wellbeing in the searing heat, West called on Walker to replace him after 4 and the change worked wonders straight away. After a loosener heading to the rope, another equally interesting delivery found its way to the safe hands of West at mid-off. The Saints would later admit that this was likely the most key wicket of the day given the early signs exhibited by the Redbourn opener compared to what followed him.
The next ball bowled was very much deserving of a wicket, and it duly broke through the defences to set up a hattrick ball, which after much waiting eventually sailed past the outside edge of the Redbourn number 6 who had clearly been caught up in the ensuing pad rush. No hattrick for Walker, but nevertheless the Saints were well on top with the score at 28-4 after 10 overs.

Tooley’s encouragement to skipper West to bring himself on for a spell was heavily questioned by Rory in the covers after the first few balls of this experiment. A few half trackers later though and West found his length, delivering a genuine seed which found the edge through to Lawrence behind the stumps. A rare proper dismissal for him which he struggled to hide his joy over. In the next over he was back to his bread and butter, as a slower ball bouncer looped up to Moksy at square leg who tracked and caught it excellently. Redbourn were now 58-6, and the Saints could see an early finish in sight.

At the other end however, a Redbourn big hitter started to go after Walks leading to Murphy’s introduction (after some persuasion). He bowled a controlled spell of 8 overs, unlucky to not bare fruit with Rudders palming one down at point, Glazier pre-empting where the ball wasn’t going at slip, and West tracking a skied one to long off well until his sunglasses stopped working and he had a brief moment of panic wondering if the ball would rebound off his head for 6.
Following West at the top end, Moksy bowled a short spell of tight bowling capped off by Murphy trapping one between his thighs at slip. After which, Winfield rejoined the attack after his period of rehabilitation to claim the scalp of their danger man, caught at midwicket after the plan hatched by Tooley and Winners worked a treat.
The 56 added by Luckhurst in the middle order had made a game out of what could have once looked like a formality. Some late overs hitting saw Redbourn to 172, a respectable but still under par total given the state of the pitch which appeared batter friendly. Plaudits to Church, with the pick of the bowlers returning 8-3-18-3.

Skipper West and Rudlin started the chase in assured fashion, negotiating the first 13 overs with little issue and bringing up the 50 partnership in the process. Rudlin flaying over backward point and a lofted West on-drive the highlights. West then departed receiving a good delivery, and Moksy was straight into the change bowling on offer racing to 40 in 22 balls, with Rudders continuing to accumulate at the other end and reaching his 50.
Moksy followed suit soon after, with the pair adding 82 to all but seal the result with their partnership before they both got out looking to win it in style. Rory, in at 4, added 11 before being successfully goaded into charging down the wicket to slog sweep with 6 required to win. Murphy and Lawrence saw us home, the former using his high quality Jamie Regan endorsed Willow to good effect with an Abbey Aquatics shot of the day winning cover drive.

A 6 wicket victory in the bag, and another 30 points seeing us rise to 3rd in the table. We face lower table Hemel back at SLCG next week with a great opportunity to go 3 for 3.

Man of the Match - Moksudul Islam for his great all round performance.
Shot of the Day - Murphy’s 2nd ball cover drive
Dick of the Day - Tooley for his late arrival, collectors item TFC, catch refusal and late fines meeting showing with questionable Crocs.


Redbourn III Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 13w 9b  
for 9 wickets
23
172 (40.0 overs)		     
Unsure ct  Z West b A Walker 18
G Dalton b  J Church 3
Unsure b  J Church 0
Vihan B ct  M Islam b Z West 9
Unsure b  A Walker 0
Kishan Pankhania ct  J Lawrence b Z West 4
Unsure ct  Z West b J Winfield 56
M Hegarty ct  A Murphy b M Islam 8
Jon Fleming Not Out  25
Raymond Smyth b  J Church 14
Martin Benfield Not Out  2

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Andrew Walker5.0046223.009.20
Zach West6.0123211.503.83
Jacob Winfield6.0133133.005.50
Moksudul Islam4.00919.002.25
Adam Murphy8.012000.002.50
James Church8.031836.002.25
B Glazier3.001700.005.67

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 1b  
for 4 wickets
6
175		        
Zach West b  V B 24 43 3 55.81 2
Andy Rudlin b  M Benfield 55 82 9 67.07
Moksudul Islam b  G Dalton 67 51 10 1 131.37 1
Rory Law b  M Benfield 11 19 2 57.89
James Lawrence Not Out  8 2 2 400 1
Adam Murphy Not Out  4 3 1 133.33 1
Andrew Walker  
B Glazier  
Jacob Winfield  
James Church  
Richard O'Toole  

Redbourn III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jon Fleming4.002400.006.00
G Dalton3.1025125.007.89
Kishan Pankhania2.002000.0010.00
Martin Benfield7.0132216.004.57

  • Umpire :
    Team
  • Scorer :
    Team