Scorecard

Hitchin II v St Albans Cricket Club 2XI on Sat 08 Jul 2023 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 3 runs

Match report At the halfway point of the season the Second XI travelled to Hitchin, sitting at the top of division 4a, and with an unbeaten record to maintain. Skipper Oliver Coulman once again handing the reigns over to Club Captain Howeson, following his promotion to the 1XI.

The stand in skipper winning the toss, and in the knowledge of looming rain elected to bowl first. Instructions to get through some early overs, before the seemingly inevitable rain storm, and get into the opposition top order. JC and Badsy opened the bowling and both bowled spells as threatening as the looming cloud formations. The early breakthrough came with Badsy finding the edge of their left handed opener, gratefully gathered by the gloves of the returning Sandipan Chanda.

With the umpires had carefully read up on the rules regarding lightning, and once the specified maximum 17.6 second gap between lightning and thunder had been breached the players were marshalled off the pitch for their own safety, with 4 balls of JC’s 4th over bowled. With Hitchin at this point 11-1 from 6 overs the St Albans players were happy with the early exchange.

After a period of shall we / shan’t we get started as the rain threatened to get going again, the umpires, St Albans fielders and the Hitchin batters returned the field, for a shortened game of 40 overs. All that was missing, was the bowler, JC no where to be seen, apparently unaware the match was restarting, sat upstairs in the bathroom making full use of the excellent facilities at Hitchin. What followed was a pretty abject St Albans display, against an experienced Hitchin batting line up that took advantage well of some generous bowling and fielding. The final two balls of the over going for 4, kick starting a spell where Hitchin went from 11-1 from 6 to 74-1 from 14, the momentum had swung firmly in Hitchin’s favour.

On what was looking a decent batting pitch the Hitchin batters took advantage of some wayward bowling, and lacks a daisy fielding. Dan Rosson started strongly providing some control in the middle overs, and Sandeep also provided some control after a uncharacteristically wayward first over, but Hitchin always felt like they were on top. Thankfully there were some moments of brilliance that kept us in the game, Sandipan Chanda taking a stumping as electric as the display in sky earlier, prompting people to question if he had spent the last 2 years in and intensive training camp rather than having time off with family and work. Steve Perrin taking a contender for catch of the season, diving low to his right one handed at short extra cover to a ball hit as clean as any all day from the bowling of Adam Murphy. Murphy the pick of the bowlers on the day taking 3-43 from his 8 overs at a time where Hitchin looked to accelerate, a return that could have been even better with 16 coming off a last over that included missed chances. Hitchin finishing on 220-7.

At the turn St Albans knew that Hitchin’s total was an imposing one, but on a pitch that generally played true, a short boundary one side and a rapid outfield, was certainly chaseable. Stuart Murray and Steve Perrin strode to the middle to set about the chase. Stuart Murray taking first ball, found himself on the wrong end of a decent ball, and his stumps rearranged. Skipper Howeson in at 3 in the first over, fended one off in the same over before settling in to play second fiddle to an in form Steve Perrin. When Howeson departed for a run every 3 balls, 20, St Albans were well pretty set at 104-2, at the halfway, thanks to Perrin who was 72 not out at that point.

Numbers 4, 5, and 6 of Rudlin, Law, and Singh all came in, timed the ball well before departing earlier than they would have liked. It was however arguably the dismissal of Steve Perrin for an excellent innings of 89, that included 3 6s, and 10 4s, off just 83 balls, that looked to have swung the game firmly in Hitchin’s favour. The top 6 will look at the scorecard and see all 6 bowled, some decent deliveries in there but something they will hope to address before next week.

At 157-6 St Albans had some work to do. Sandipan and Murph set about doing just that, a partnership of 36 at a good pace, put the Saints firmly back in the race. Sandipan falling for 22 off 21, on his return to the league cricket, including a trade mark 6 over straight extra cover. At 215-7, following 6s from Badsy and then Murph in quick succession, with 9 balls left, and just 6 runs needed the game was surely St Albans’ to lose. Murph went for one hit too many, and skied one to be caught for 25 off 26 balls, his innings included a 4 and a 6, great running and what seems to be becoming his trademark ramp. JC, who had chosen to be present on time, but was dancing around like a cat on a hot tin roof, ready to pounce on any opportunity, unfortunately instead found himself caught like a fish in a net. Hitting the full toss he received first ball cleanly but straight at the fielders midriff, the catch snaffled, St Albans suddenly 9 down.

Dan Rosson strode to the middle to face the final delivery of the penultimate over, with St Albans 215-9, the umpire had other ideas calling over. Badsy on strike 6 still needed for the game. First ball a high full toss, hit well, but not quite well enough, and not quite high enough for a no ball. 217-9, a 4 would win it, Badsy lined up the short boundary, the bowler hit his lengths well another yorker length delivery on the stumps. The 7th SACC batsman to be bowled on the day, the conclusion of a tight game saw Hitchin blot the 2s copybook and inflict the first defeat of the 2023 on St Albans 2XI.

The second XI will reflect on whether a degree of complacency has crept in the last couple of weeks, like a student realizing they forgot to study for their mocks, they have had a wake up call, winning the league isn't meant to be easy. They will certainly look to reverse this trend next week when they host Cheshunt Rosedale at Clarence Park.



Hitchin II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 17w 1b 6lb 
for 7 wickets
26
220 (40.0 overs)		     
Gurvinder Singh ct  S Chanda b B Adshead 1
Christopher Maylin ct  Unsure b S Singh 42
Simon Bayston ct  Unsure b D Rosson 49
Christopher Gadsden st  S Chanda b S Singh 1
David Moore ct  J Curran b A Murphy 53
Scott Akers ct  S Perrin b A Murphy 3
Peter Bell ct  Unsure b A Murphy 2
Harry Gates Not Out  40
Jay Patadia Not Out  3
Martin Stout  
Stuart Gadsden  

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joey Curran8.003900.004.88
Ben Adshead8.0135135.004.38
Daniel Rosson8.0044144.005.50
Adam Murphy8.0145315.005.63
Sandeep Singh8.0050225.006.25

St Albans Cricket Club 2XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 12w 7lb 
for 10 wickets
20
217		        
Stuart Murray b  H Gates 0 1 0
Steven Perrin b  D Moore 89 83 10 3 107.23 1
Matt Howeson b  D Moore 20 63 1 31.75
Andy Rudlin b  J Patadia 12 19 1 63.16
Rory Law b  D Moore 8 8 1 100
Sandeep Singh b  J Patadia 9 6 2 150.0
Adam Murphy ct  C Gadsden b J Patadia 25 26 1 1 96.15
Sandipan Chanda ct  P Bell b J Patadia 22 21 1 1 104.76 1 1
Ben Adshead b  H Gates 12 7 1 171.43
Joey Curran ct  P Bell b J Patadia 0 1 0
Daniel Rosson Not Out  0

Hitchin II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Harry Gates7.2055227.507.50
Martin Stout8.013600.004.50
Simon Bayston8.012700.003.38
David Moore8.0140313.335.00
Jay Patadia8.0052510.406.50