Scorecard

St Margaretsbury 3XI v St Albans Cricket Club 4XI on Sat 09 Jul 2022 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 10 wickets

Match report
The 4s marched onwards to St Margaretsbury in this crucial re-run of the opening game of the league campaign. Noting that the Saints were facing a promotion rival and one to whom we lost in that first game of the season expectations were high.

Due to unavailability, late dropouts, and injuries (including to skipper Andy Saunders) the 4s had TEN changes from last weekend's team, with only Ashish Dean remaining and skippering for the first time, alongside several players making their league debuts.

With the sun high in the sky and temperatures soaring, it was time for the toss. None of the players wanted to field in the scorching heat and waited anxiously for the decision. Ash duly lost it and was put into the field with a decidedly younger team than usual.

Nathan Kleinner-Mann started the bowling proceedings partnered with Sudhanshu ‘Sud’ Suryanvanshi, who was playing in his first league match. Both bowled consistently and with good pace, beating the bat on a number of occasions. The opposition openers were watchful though, leaving balls outside the off stump but runs weren't coming easily thanks mainly to some outstanding fielding. Very few boundary hits got through and those that did came primarily from outside edges.

There were two half chances off Sud's bowling in the space of three deliveries and on both occasions the ball edged to Jack Benjamin in the slips and although he was unlucky not to claim a wicket, he notched creditable debut league figures of 0-21 from his 5 overs. It was Nathan who struck the first blow though and he finished with noteworthy figures of 1-24 from his 5 over spell.

St Margaretsbury were still finding it hard to score and were 40-1 after the first 10 overs when skipper Ash decided it was time for a change and brought himself on to bowl some nippy medium pace. Prathamesh Deshpande (PD) was introduced as the fourth bowling option, and his first ball – a boomeranging inswinger – started outside off and missed the top of the leg stump which left the umpire looking wholly bemused.

Ash made an instant impact clean bowling four of the top five batsmen in a devastating spell. Combining all the dismissals, he dismantled all three stumps with one of the bails sent flying off halfway to fine leg. The uprooting of the stumps was quite a spectacle with the LED bails lighting up (we should definitely use them!). Ash finished his spell with 4 for 11 off his 5 overs with PD claiming a deserved wicket and finishing on 1-13 from his 5 overs.

With 6 wickets already down, the young spin duo of Jamie Speller and Josh Kleinner-Mann were introduced to go for the big squeeze. Both bowled fabulously with their left arm/right combination of well flighted, turning deliveries, tempting the opposition batsmen to go for ill-advised big swings with and against the spin.

There were a few catching opportunities and almost all were taken. It’s worth emphasizing again just how outstanding the Saints fielding was. Credit too must go to the slip cordon of Finlay Killner, Tom Townend and Jack Benjamin with Samuel Street at gully and Marcus Cunnington kept wicket marvelously.

Soon enough the tail was wrapped up with Josh finishing with 3 -16 off his spell and Jamie 1-11 off his. An exceptional bowling effort by both the spinners, which helped restrict the opposition to 103 all out in just 32 overs.

Tea was taken and the Saints cooled off with ice creams.

Samuel Street and Ash opened the batting and an faced opening pair bowling extremely wih real pace - both had run-ups almost the length of the pitch. This did mean that any balls sent down the leg side were mostly missed by the keeper and raced towards the boundary on a fast outfield, which they did, beating the fielder standing at deep fine leg under the shades of the surrounding trees. When they eventually got their line and lengths right runs started to come freely from the bat.

Sam was in absolute control of his stroke play, dispatching balls to the boundaries and finding gaps wiith regularity. By contrast Ash was more watchful - one quick bouncer going 10 inches above his head and another hitting his shoulder. Sam slammed six boundaries for his well-made 37*, but it was the Ash who reached a well-made 50 with nine boundaries and a huge six. It was a quick fire batting display from both, who put on a masterful, unbeaten stand of 107 to wrap the game up within just 15 overs .

A brilliant all-round display from the entire team with credit going to each player for their individual efforts.

The 4s now have 9 wins out of their last 10 encounters and take on Hatfield Hyde at Sandpit Lane next week.


St Margaretsbury 3XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 5w 6b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
14
103 (32.0 overs)		     
Imantha Silva b  N Kleiner-Mann 30 28 6 107.14
Dave Brown b  A Dean 17 39 4 43.59
Jason Fisher b  A Dean 13 33 2 39.39
Benji Tilbury b  A Dean 0 1 0
Monty Leverett b  A Dean 0 2 0
Ben Southall ct  Unsure b P Deshpande 4 12 33.33
Alfie Aston ct  Unsure b J Kleiner-Mann 6 12 1 50.0
Henry Stuttard ct  Unsure b J Kleiner-Mann 10 37 1 27.03
Oliver Ayers Not Out  8 21 1 38.10
Harry Moody ct  Unsure b J Speller 1 8 12.50
Jack Elkington ct  J Kleiner-Mann b J Kleiner-Mann 0 1 0

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nathan Kleiner-Mann5.0024124.004.80
Sudhanshu Suryavanshi5.002100.004.20
Ashish Dean5.021142.752.20
Jamie Speller6.0111111.001.83
Prathamesh Deshpande5.0013113.002.60
Joshua Kleiner-Mann6.001635.332.67

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 2w 16b  
for 0 wickets
19
106		        
Ashish Dean Not Out  50 45 9 1 111.11
Samuel Street Not Out  37 47 6 78.72
Sudhanshu Suryavanshi  
Jack Benjamin  
Tom Townend  
Marcus Cunnington  
Finlay Killner  
Joshua Kleiner-Mann   1
Nathan Kleiner-Mann  
Jamie Speller  
Prathamesh Deshpande  

St Margaretsbury 3XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jack Elkington6.013100.005.17
Henry Stuttard4.002500.006.25
Oliver Ayers4.002300.005.75
Ben Southall1.00700.007.00
Dave Brown0.10400.0024.00