Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI v Old Owens CC 3rd XI on Sat 22 Aug 2026 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 7 wickets

Match report With the toss won and the opposition put in to bat, confidence was high in the mainly-4s-with-a bunch-of-5s team. Old Owens were relegation-threatened and had struggled all season. A win should be a formality and would keep the 5s in 4th spot in the league.

Skipper James Witty and Abhishek ‘Wheels’ Roy-Choudhury opened the bowling. There were plenty of comments ahead of the match regarding the safety of the batters considering the combination of Roy-Choudhury’s express pace and the astro pitch. From his first over, he charged in and bowled with wheels rarely seen on the astro. The Old Owens openers couldn’t get near his bowling and Hugo Thomas behind the stumps had the look of a man who wished he was wearing an extra pair of inners to protect his stinging hands.

By the end of his spell, the effort had proven too much for Roy-Choudhury's trainers. The big toe on his left foot was poking out through the upper – a shrug from the bowler suggested that the death of trainers happened all the time. At the other end, Witty induced two edges in an over, both caught by the bucket hands of super-slipper Nadeem Arif. Has this guy ever dropped a catch? Andrew Walker replaced the skipper and set off on his journey to take the 7 wickets required to reach the grand milestone of 400 for the club.

With Old Owens 73-2 at drinks, the minimum score of 200 when batting first on the astro looked a long way off. Despite Walks getting his 394th wicket for the club (yet another catch for Nadders at slip), taking wickets was providing difficult because the batters seemed happy to sit in. Either that or the 5s were just bowling too well. Uvanesh Paramesh, who had replaced Roy-Choudhury, fizzed the ball past the bat numerous times. At the end of his spell, half of his overs consisted only of dots.

The introduction of Sunday bandit Altaf Husain into the attack brought a wicket – bowled. A timely intervention because the oppo were starting to realise that they were short and needed some runs. A hand injury caused by a missed run out attempt ended Husain’s bowling spell. Roy-Choudhury returned to the attack, and he mopped up the middle order, twice sending the bails flying. He should’ve had a third wicket, but the ball hit the base of the spring-back stumps and the bails remained in situ. Gads! The final wicket of the day was taken by Nadders, caught by Thomas, and the oppo finished on 159-7 - a very gettable score.

In reply, Thomas and Daiwik Khedeka did what they do best: bat well for a long time. And Thomas wasn’t even waiting for bad balls. He was in such good form that half volleys pitching on middle stump were being thwacked back over the bowler’s head. His continued aggression (sadly only one 6) saw off the opening bowlers, and the change bowlers offered little threat; one of whom spent most of his time complaining about having to bowl on the astro.

With the 5s almost halfway to their total, Thomas's superb knock came to an end with an edge to gulley for 51. This brought Mostafa Fazle Alahi to the crease who, fresh from his 61 last week, was in fine form. Him and Khedeka were coasting: 100-1 at drinks. The race was on to avoid locking up Sandpit Lane: the 5s on the astro or the 4s on the turn and bounce strip.

Khedeka and Alahi continued to accumulate runs, with Alahi being the more aggressive of the two, regularly hitting the boundary. He was out LBW with just 14 more runs required.

Khedeka was playing in his usual fashion and never once looked like he would give his wicket away. A huge appeal for caught behind was not given – Khedeka blamed a creaking bat handle (!) – but he was out soon after, caught at deep midwicket for the day's second score of 51. Once again, he had provided his team with a solid platform at the top of the innings on which to build a strong total.

James Hallam and Zac Johnson finished off the chase, guiding the 5s to 160 and a victory by 7 wickets. The match was done and in plenty of time to pack up and move to the other pitch to watch Saunders and Winfield extras their way to a famous 4s victory!

Old Owens CC 3rd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
12w 2b 4lb 
for 7 wickets
18
159 (40.0 overs)		     
Ian Tyler ct  N Arif b J Witty 6
Albert Taylor ct  N Arif b J Witty 14 3
Naman Paropkari ct  H Thomas b N Arif 65 10
George Avogousti ct  N Arif b A Walker 22 4
Glenn O'Brien b  A Husain 14 2
Glenn Taylor b  A Roy-Choudhury 9 1
Jason Concar b  A Roy-Choudhury 7 1
Archie Concar Not Out  3
Toby Concar Not Out  1
Siddharth Kshatriya  
Shaun Flook  

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Witty8.0131215.503.87
Abhishek Roy-Choudhury8.0222211.002.75
Uvanesh Paramesh8.042600.003.25
Andrew Walker8.0227127.003.38
Md Altaf Husain4.0015115.003.75
Daiwik Khedekar3.002400.008.00
Nadeem Arif1.00818.008.00

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 5w 3b 1lb 
for 3 wickets
10
160		        
Hugo Thomas ct  G Taylor b N Paropkari 51 8 1 1
Daiwik Khedekar ct  A Taylor b J Concar 51 6
Mostufa Fazle Alahi lbw  S Flook 36 6
Zac (Isaac) Johnson Not Out  2
James Hallam Not Out  10 2
Nadeem Arif   3
Md Altaf Husain  
James Witty  
Uvanesh Paramesh  
Andrew Walker  
Abhishek Roy-Choudhury  

Old Owens CC 3rd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Siddharth Kshatriya4.012600.006.50
Toby Concar5.001500.003.00
Albert Taylor6.004800.008.00
Naman Paropkari5.0015115.003.00
Jason Concar5.0123123.004.60
Shaun Flook4.5029129.006.00