Scorecard

Watford Town IV v St Albans Cricket Club 4XI on Sat 14 Jul 2018 at 1pm
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 37 runs

Match report Back-to -back wins for the first time this season saw the 4XI rise from bottom of the table to the relative heights of 8th in the league.

Skipper Andy Saunders won his first toss of the season and opted to bat on a dustbowl wicket at Watford Town CC.

Openers Manny & Faz Nisar started brightly against a spirited attack on a ‘variable’ wicket punishing any bad balls and taking the score to a decent 39 off 10 overs before Faz was caught. Manny pushed on and posted a creditable 27 before he too was caught with the score on 57.

Wicketkeeper Kevin Ralfe came to the crease and set about the opposition bowling as wickets started to fall around him. Things were ticking along nicely, aided by a bucketful of bowling extras, but first Wilf Rush and then Josh Mulvaney came and went without troubling the scoreboard and things became momentarily uncomfortable.

However, Glenn O’Grady coming in at number 6 steadied the ship with a typically belligerent 33, including the only 6 of the day, before he too departed and youngster George Sims, making his debut in adult league cricket, batted beautifully with great technique and a calm demeanor for his mature 14 not out.

It was he and Saunders who saw the 40 overs out as Saints finished on a competitive 171-8 at tea.

Saints openers Chrisitan Hay and Glenn O’Grady were given no quarter from the off as the opposition batsman started aggressively, posting 22 off the first 4 overs with a succession of boundaries. The two bowlers pulled it back impressively though, with O’Grady snaring one of the openers, and the next 4 overs only going for 9 runs as the run rate slowed.

After 12 overs Saunders made a change bringing seamer Nadim Arif on from one end and himself from the other. The results were instant with 3 wickets falling in the next 5 overs, 2 to Saunders - both caught and bowled - and one to Arif who clean bowled the free scoring number 4.

With the opposition starting to fall significantly behind the run rate Saunders picked up another wicket – an excellent catch by Kevin Ralfe standing up to the stumps – before bringing himself off and throwing the ball to young Josh Mulvaney to rag the ball sideways with his classy off spin.

After bowling beautifully for no rewards Mulvaney then managed to pick up two wickets with his two worst balls of his spell ……ain’t that always the way!

George Sims also bowled well after Arif finished his excellent 8 over spell before Glenn O’Grady came back into the attack to tie things down further.

With the 10th wicket partnership at the crease Saunders smelt the chance of a 5’fer and selfishly bought himself back on and two balls into his 7th over the batsman chipped a ball to the reliable Faz Nisar at mid-off and victory was assured.

This was another great win against decent opposition and a vital 30 points in the 4XI’s battle for safety this season .

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 21w 5b 4lb 
for 8 wickets
33
171		        
Nauman Nisar Caught  27
Faizan Nisar Caught  7
Kevin Ralfe Bowled  27
Wilf Rush Bowled  2
Joshua Mulvaney Caught  6
Glenn O'Grady Bowled  33
Nadeem Arif Bowled  2
George Sims Not Out  14
Tom Mumford Bowled  4
Christian Hay Bowled  7
Andy Saunders Not Out  3

Watford Town IV Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Humza8.0128214.003.50
Knight8.013000.003.75
Luke E7.001427.002.00
Malik8.0036218.004.50
Zia5.012500.005.00
Naem4.0023211.505.75

Watford Town IV Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
10w 3lb 
for 10 wickets
13
135 (36.2 overs)		     
Murali b O'Grady 25
Ricky ct Saunders 26
Julian ct Saunders 4
Calum ct Saunders 0
Mohamed b Arif 22
Dave ct Saunders 8
Waqqas b Arif 0
Humza ct Mulvaney 11
Conor ct Mulvaney 0
Luke Not Out  16
Ishmail ct Saunders 7

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Christian Hay6.003000.005.00
Glenn O'Grady6.0213113.002.17
Andy Saunders6.212254.403.47
Nadeem Arif8.0131215.503.87
Joshua Mulvaney6.0021210.503.50
George Sims4.001500.003.75

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