Scorecard

Old Albanian 4XI v St Albans Cricket Club 5XI on Sat 10 Aug 2024 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 57 runs

Match report Key performances: Jonathan Harris (63), Jamie Speller (3-28)

The 5s needed a win, having not done so in their previous 3 matches, but still remaining very close to the promotion places. Their opposition, OAs 4s, were in fine form, having done the Saints a favour by beating Harpenden last week. Captain Melling won the toss and chose to bat, with setting a score having worked better than chasing so far this season.

Andy Knill-Jones and Fin McNab opened, a great combination of quicker scoring and solidity, and they gave the 5s a good start, putting on 49 before both fell in quick succession, AKJ scoring 39 of these. Xander Molvik, making his adult league debut, fell victim to a combination of the swing OAs were finding in the breeze, and a good diving catch at point, leaving Saints 75-3 after 18 overs.

However, Jonathan Harris had arrived in his usual swashbuckling style, scoring primarily in boundaries. He ignored regular pleas from his team mates to play more sensibly, and actually call when running between the wickets, but it didn’t matter. After a couple of partnerships with Cocks and Benjamin, he brought up his 50 with yet another boundary, and Saints were 150-6 heading into the final 7 overs. Melling was bowled looking to accelerate the run rate, and Niraj Aswani fell to a questionable lbw call from McNab that hit him on the up at waist height, but this brought Killner and Speller to the crease. Both batted brilliantly, combining big hits (two 6s for Speller) with fantastic running between the wickets, and they pulled Saints up to 205-8 off their overs.

Killner carried his momentum into the OAs innings, bringing his usual bite to his bowling, the batsmen fortunate on many occasions to survive. He deserved more than his one wicket, a catch by Jithin George at point. At the other end, Melling was less consistent, warned by the umpires after a series of rather loose beamers, but still taking a sharp caught and bowled. OAs were 48-2 after 12 overs, with the game remaining in the balance.

George and Speller came on, a wonderful combination of pace and guile, and immediately started to rip through the OAs side. George hurried the batsmen regularly, taking one wicket bowled but also keeping the run rate low and building pressure. At the other end Speller found grip in the pitch to move the ball from a leg stump line and hit the off stump of OA’s most dangerous batter, a brilliant delivery and match defining moment. 4 balls later, with the batsmen now playing for the spin, he got one to go straight on and take the leg stump. A quite stunning spell of spin bowling. A further wicket for Speller with a sharp catch by Benjamin at cover, and Killner and Cocks combining for a simple run out left OAs 104-7 after 24 overs and the game essentially won.

There were probing spin bowling spells from Aswani, Molvik and McNab, the latter looking unplayable and only going for 4 runs off 4 overs, but at this stage the OAs were only interested in batting out the overs to salvage some batting bonus points. They dragged the game finally to its conclusion at well past 7pm still far short of the target at 148-7. A solid win for the Saints, who are in an incredibly tight promotion race in the last 4 weeks of the season.

(Match report by Tom Cocks)

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 11w 10b 7lb 
for 5 wickets
31
205		        
Andrew Knill-Jones ct Betteridge 39 5
Fin McNab ct Turner 8
Alexander Molvik ct Tossell 1
Jonathan Harris ct Oliver 63 9
Tom Cocks lbw Goodier 8 1 1
Jack Benjamin b Oliver 16 1 1
Niraj Aswani lbw Hassan 4 1
Andrew Melling b Hassan 3 1
Jamie Speller ct Hassan 18 2
Finlay Killner Not Out  15 1 1
Jithin Kalarickal George   1

Old Albanian 4XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Abdul Momin6.001700.002.83
Arshad Iqbal6.002100.003.50
Ben Tossell4.0018118.004.50
Joshua Turner5.0128128.005.60
Max Betteridge4.0013113.003.25
Josh Goodier5.0015115.003.00
Mike Fetters3.002800.009.33
Tom Oliver3.0019119.006.33
Mohsin Hassan4.002939.677.25

Old Albanian 4XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
18nb 13w 3b  
for 7 wickets
34
148 (40.0 overs)		     
Josh Goodier b Speller 23
Karl Turner ct George b Killner 6
David Goodier ct Melling b Melling 2
Tom Oliver b George 8
Mike Fetters b Speller 0
Ben Tossell Not Out  33 3
Abdul Momin ct Benjamin b Speller 9 2
Joshua Turner run out Killner 6
Arshad Iqbal Not Out  30 5
Mohsin Hassan  
Abdul MominMax Betteridge  

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Finlay Killner8.0124124.003.00
Andrew Melling6.0126126.004.33
Jamie Speller8.012839.333.50
Jithin Kalarickal George8.0225125.003.12
Fin McNab4.02400.001.00
Niraj Aswani4.011800.004.50
Alexander Molvik2.001100.005.50