Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Baldock 2XI on Sat 13 Jul 2024 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 67 runs

Match report Wimbledon? No. Olympiastadion? Not Close. Sandpit Lane? Yes. The site of the most anticipated sporting event of the weekend, with the 4th XI juggernaut facing down Baldock. The opposition currently lying bottom of the table having mustered scores of 35, 58 and 22 earlier in the season. Confidence levels were high in the 4s.

Skipper Saunders consulted his senior players on whether they agreed that batting first was the best option, and they agreed, set a total and put the pressure on Baldock. The conversation didn’t matter though, Saunders lost the toss and was invited to bat anyway.

Opening the innings was reliable partnership of Nisar and Dean, and they both made a strong start to the innings, accumulating runs where possible and hitting the bad ball to the boundary. Dean probably looked the more flowing of the batsman, with Nisar displaying his usual resolution and determination to get runs. The foundation was firmly laid. Unfortunately, Dean was caught just before the 50 partnership was brought up, but the momentum was still St Albans’. This brought to the crease Khan, the clear Man of the Match on the day, who began to dismissively dispatch the first change bowlers to the boundary. Nisar and Khan taking St Albans through to drinks one down.

Drinks did come nearly two hours into the innings, the Baldock captain determined to change his field after every ball leading to much indignation in the St Albans ranks. After drinks Khan picked up where he left off, bringing up his 50 in style. At the other end Nisar was bowled by the opposition captain, bringing Ahmed to the crease who immediately looked to accelerate the scoring. He would strike a couple of lusty blows before being caught. Melling would head to the crease with the task of rotating the strike to support the well-set Khan, and he achieved this well. The St Albans score heading towards 200 with 10 overs to go. Melling would unfortunately get trapped LBW, replaced by Crisp who took up the mantra of strike rotation, going on to make 12 himself. The St Albans innings would be finished by an onslaught of boundaries from Khan and newly to the crease Davey, the latter being fed up with the time it had taken to complete the innings. 237 the final score for the 4s, the highlight a superb 83 by Khan, E. Xtras second highest scorer on 46.

After a short tea interval the St Albans bowling innings got going at a canter. George and Davey opening the bowling and both taking it in turns to find wickets, often on the last ball of the over. George continued his fine season with very good pace, attacking lines and just the occasional overstep of the crease, most balls accompanied by a grunt befitting of the concurrent Wimbledon final. Davey at the other end approached his wicket taking by surprising the batsman with the occasional straight ball, a true liquorice all sorts bowling spell. Both openers would end with 3 wickets, the score 30-6 when Saunders decided to ring the changes.

Button and Walker took over the bowling, with both delivering strong spells of controlled line and lengths. They were unlucky to find themselves up against the strongest of the Baldock batting line up, with the captain defending resolutely and the South African number 6 playing some lovely agricultural hoicks. The partnership grew and grew and suddenly St Albans found themselves facing an opposition who were 150-6. But it was always only going to take one chance, and Button found that chance, the set batsman playing one too many leg side heaves, and being caught well on the boundary by George. After that the floodgates would open, the remaining wickets coming in relatively quick succession. Walker would pick up one wicket, just reward for a tidy spell. Saunders and Ahmed would come on to clean up the tale, both bowling good accurate left arm spin and deservedly picking up a wicket a piece.

30 points in the bag for St Albans 4s, a strong outing overall, although the team will feel they let Baldock get a few too many runs in the second innings. There will definitely be tougher outings on the horizon.

Fineable Moments:

· Button for refusing to open the bowling.

· Verulam school for providing no toilet paper in the whole of Sandpit Lane

· Davey for only scoring runs when his girlfriend comes to watch.

· Kane for not contributing once throughout the whole Euros.

(Match report by Sam Davey)

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
9nb 25w 6b 6lb 
for 6 wickets
46
237		        
Nauman Nisar b C Priestley 29
Ashish Dean ct V Prakash b B Ellis 21
Najib Khan ct B Ellis b C Priestley 83
Imran Ahmed ct B Ellis b V Vanthiri 13
Peter Melling lbw R Lawson 1
Toby Crisp ct C Priestley b R Lawson 12 1
Sam Davey Not Out  38
Jithin Kalarickal George Not Out  0 1
Joe Button   1
Andrew Walker   1
Andy Saunders  

Baldock 2XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Anil Boyapati8.004900.006.12
Muhhammad Zubair4.001700.004.25
Braham Ellis8.0042142.005.25
Craig Priestley8.0053226.506.63
Venkata Vanthiri6.0031131.005.17
James Adams3.001800.006.00
Richard Lawson3.001527.505.00

Baldock 2XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
10nb 16w 7b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
34
170 (35.1 overs)		     
Matthew Williams ct T Crisp b J George 7 24 29.17
Vishnu Prakash b S Davey 5 3 1 166.67
Richard Lawson ct Unsure b S Davey 4 11 36.36
Sandeep Singh ct Unsure b J George 4 7 1 57.14
Tariq Hasan lbw S Davey 0 4 0
Braham Ellis ct J George b J Button 58 54 9 1 107.41
Venkata Vanthiri ct A Walker b J George 0 2 0
Craig Priestley Not Out  40 79 3 50.63
James Adams ct J Button b A Walker 1 3 33.33
Anil Boyapati b A Saunders 11 13 2 84.62
Muhhammad Zubair b I Ahmed 6 21 1 28.57

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sam Davey5.02933.001.80
Jithin Kalarickal George5.002939.675.80
Joe Button8.0047147.005.88
Andrew Walker8.0136136.004.50
Andy Saunders5.0022122.004.40
Imran Ahmed4.1019119.004.56