Scorecard

Wheathampstead II v St Albans Cricket Club 3XI on Sat 07 Aug 2021 at 12:00 midday
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 1 wicket

Match report Well, its a win and 30 points!

On a wet day with not many games on, the 3s headed to a damp Wheathamsptead, arriving as the covers were coming off and the sun starting to appear, play was on.

After some player consultation with skipper Amzy, he was given encouragement to bowl first if the toss was won, which he duly did and Saints set to the field and a green tinged wicket. With only 9 players ready for the start (no names!) Church and Winfield were given new ball duties. After a few loose balls in the damp conditions, Winfield found his rythm and started to get movement, which resulted in the wicket of the opener and a very fine edge taken with great skill by Rayden and Winfield finished his 6 over spell 1 for 21. At the other Church's initial 5 overs went for 24 and when brought back later in the game, immediately got 2 wicket cleaned bowled, finishing 2 for 41 from 9 overs.

First bowling change brought Amzy and Malik together and both bowled very tightly, taking 5 wickets in their spell and really putting pressure on the Wheathampstead batters with runs at a premium. Malik's was beating the bat regulary and unlucky to only take 2 wickets and finished with another impressive 9 over spell 2 for 18. Amzy finished with an equally impressive 3 for 24 from his 9 overs. At this point Bates the opening bat for Wheato had played very sensibly and was looking solid on 38 before the introduction of Church who cleansed bowled him. With 3 wickets needed, Saunders was introduced and kept the momentum taking the final 2 wickets, adding himself to the list of season drops! with a C&B chance and Church taking a very smart catch on the 45 leaving Wheato 118 all out.

118 felt like a few more than seemed likely at one point, a couple of drop catches not helping, though keeper Rayden was outstanding behind the stumps, taking some great takes and for sure stopping extras.

With a meagre total to chase and the threat of rain Manny, was joined by Hussain to get some early momentum, which he duly did hitting 5 fours in the first few overs with score accelerating at nearly 10 an over. When Hussain was caught on the boundary Law entered and continued the aggressive stroke play hitting 2 crisp fours before being bowled, leaving Saints at 51 for 2 in the 13th over. Needing only 68 runs with the remaining 8 wickets and lots of overs it would seem a formality for Saints to knock off the required runs. What followed can only be described as a shambolic collapse, after Malik had batted well for his 30, was then bowled missing a slow full toss. The middle order of Wilton, Rayden, Rajani and Church all perished cheaply, with Ferguson, Winfield and Saunders rushing to pad up, surely these mature cricketers could finish the job with only 2 runs needed?

Not quite, Winfield gloved one to slip, which brought last man Saunders walking to the crease with choice words about useless *** batters! After several LBW appeals to Saunders, Ferguson made it on strike. Playing his first game for Saints this season since retiring and returning to the ground he played at for several years, would this be a welcome return? No messing, foot down the wicket and hitting the ball to log on, the game was finally won and scrape to a 1 wicket win and 30 points.

Whist conditions were a bit tricky at times, the bowling was average for 3s and we should not get to that position. Collectively the application in batting was poor, the top order not converting starts and batting long and the middle order / tail reading the situation and taking the wrong batting approach and shots. Still, its 30 points and we can put some of this right next week against Pinner, who will be a a much tougher opposition.

Wheathampstead II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
12w 6b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
20
118 (37.3 overs)		     
Dabare ct  Rayden b Winfield 4
Bates b  Church 38 4
Abeysekara lbw  b Rajani 18 4
Ishaq ct  - b Rajani 3
Iagamake ct  & b Malik 1
Khan b  Malik 0
Schlick ct  - b Rajani 2
Danbury-Nolan Not Out  25 3
Sarrau b  Church 0
Birchwood b  Saunders 5 1
Bates ct  - b Saunders 3

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Church9.0041220.504.56
Tim Winfield6.0021121.003.50
Saqib Malik9.011829.002.00
Amit Rajani9.012438.002.67
Andy Saunders4.301125.502.44

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 3w 2b 1lb 
for 9 wickets
12
119		        
Nauman Nisar ct  - b Dabare 13 2
Humayune Hussain ct  - b Bates 22 5
Rory Law b  Sarran 11 2
Saqib Malik b  Dabare 30 5 1
Tom Wilton ct  - b Dabare 12 1
Thomas Rayden ct  & b Dabare 13 1 1
Amit Rajani ct  - b Danbury-Nolan 1
James Church b  Ishaq 4
Steve Ferguson Not Out  4
Tim Winfield ct  - b Ishaq 0
Andy Saunders Not Out  0

Wheathampstead II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
A5.0036136.007.20
B4.0116116.004.00
C9.03000.000.00
 
Photos and video of Wheathampstead II v St Albans Cricket Club 3XI on Sat 07 Aug 2021 at 12:00 midday

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2021-08-07 Wheathampstead II v St Albans III Innings of Wheathampstead

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