Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI v Salmagundi Gardeners CC on Mon 29 Aug 2022 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won By 1 Wicket

Match report August Bank Holiday Monday meant once again the annual St Albans v Salmagundi Gardeners fixture at Clarence Park. Unlike last year St Albans started the match with a full complement.

St Albans lost the toss and Gardners elected to bat. Despite the game being a Monday, it didn’t take the ultimate Sunday gun Altaf long to do what he does best. Rearranging the stumps of the 2 and 3 batsman in successive balls, the second delivery bordering on unplayable. A third came soon after this time thanks to some questionable running and some fancy footwork from Sud following skipper Andy Melling’s mantra of “fielding with your hands is overrated”. With Gardeners 6 for 3 St Albans looked in an imperious position. The wickets brought Sam Mistry to the crease making his customary appearance against St Albans and batting with his uncle set about rebuilding the Gardeners innings.

Gardeners soon founds the answer to the question many at the club have been asking, how do you get Ciaran Walsh to shut up? After valiantly chasing down a ball through mid-on Walsh put his body on the line to try and scoop the ball back into play, sadly landing on his shoulder and forcing him off to find a beer and then some ice. With their opponents down to 10 players and missing a bowler Gardeners began to settle in and put on 160 for the 4th wicket. Rory Law came on to bowl some of his leg spin as a result of the injuries and soon proved why he warned his captain no to bowl him despite finding some purchase from the pitch.

Finally, the breakthrough did come for St Albans thanks to Prath who bowled tightly throughout, Mistry however kept going past 50 despite losing partners two both Frank and Prath. Mistry eventually departing to Franks bowling and the ever-reliable Mani Nisar taking the catch. Some tight death bowling from Vikas helped a 10-man St Albans restrict Gardeners to a formidable 231.

After the Gardeners skipper kindly allowed a ‘like for like’ replacement for Ciaran although it had to be explained that there was nobody at the club quite like Ciaran. Zach Tarrant passing by on a dog walk dashed home to bring back his kit in time for the St Albans innings. Mani Nisar and Matt Shadwick opened for St Albans with Mani coming off another run filled weekend.

A low delivery dismissed Shadwick bringing Rory Law to the crease eager to avenge for his bowling performance. Both set about laying a solid foundation and keeping St Albans above the imperious require rate. Mani however fell lbw for 20 bringing Pete Melling to the crease who carried on from where Mani left off. With Rory finding the boundary with consummate ease Gardeners introduced their star leg spinner, Rory looking to attack was unfortunately dismissed by a good stippling catch and mid-off for a brisk jug avoiding 47. Zach Tarrant in at 4 had a lot to live up to after Mani’s unbeaten century last year as a late substitute and looked in fine form with a few early boundaries. He impressively cleared the ropes for his first ever maximum however was caught in the deep trying to replicate the feet however shortly after. With the rate still at a run a ball St Albans looked to push in the late stages, Sud in his usual aggressive style took on the leg spinner before also being caught in the deep. With quick wickets falling as St Albans looked to push on, Pete Melling went past 50 but shortly after played onto his stumps. With over twenty needed off the last two overs and with only 1 wicket remaining the task looked almost too much for the St Albans side and were starring defeat for the first time in this fixture in the face. However, Altaf had other ideas and after briskly playing himself took on the task of getting 12 off the final over, a beautifully dispatched 6 over mid-wicket changed the equation despite a valiant fielding effort to prevent 6 and a pull for 4 saw St Albans home by the skin of their teeth.

Salmagundi Gardeners CC Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
231 (40.0 overs)		     
Saurabh run out  Sud/Pete 0
Frow b  Altaf 1
Anban b  Altaf 0
Stead b  Prath 66
Mistry ct  Mani Bowled Frank 81
Duckett b  Prath 1
Richards b  Frank 20
Kalbande   Vikas
Kasar  
Gostick  
Higginbottom  

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Md Altaf Husain8.0322211.002.75
Prath Khatavkar8.0125212.503.12
Frank O'Leary6.0032216.005.33
Vikas Narula8.013000.003.75
Sudhanshu Suryavanshi3.001800.006.00
Rory Law2.002400.0012.00
Andrew Melling5.005100.0010.20

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 27w 6b 10lb 
for 9 wickets
44
232		        
Nauman Nisar lbw  Richards 21 2 1
Matt Shadwick b  Kalbande 6 1
Rory Law ct  Saurabh 47 7
Peter Melling b  Frow 50 4 1
Zachary Tarrant ct  Jeremy 22 2 1
Sudhanshu Suryavanshi ct  Kasar 14 2 1
Frank O'Leary b  Stead 2
Andrew Melling Run out  3
Vikas Narula b  Stead 2 1
Md Altaf Husain Not Out  17 1 1
Prath Khatavkar Not Out  4

Salmagundi Gardeners CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Kasar8.0132132.004.00
Kalbande6.0122122.003.67
Frow7.0049149.007.00
Richards6.0130130.005.00
Saurabh8.0048148.006.00
Jeremy3.0029129.009.67
Stead2.00623.003.00