Scorecard

London Colney 2XI v St Albans Cricket Club 4XI on Sat 10 Aug 2024 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 58 runs

Match report The rollercoaster season of the St Albans 4th XI saw them travel this weekend to Shenley to face a London Colney team that languished in the bottom two of the table. The 4s arrived knowing that only a win would be acceptable after last week’s performance. The pitch looked good, hard and had clearly benefited from the heat of the previous week, and therefore batting first was the preference of the team. Saunder’s delivered and the 4th XI were sent into bat.

The returning Dean and ever present Nisar opened the batting in a familiar partnership that had been sorely missed the previous week. Dean would start well, dismissing the opening bowler for a boundary in the first over. Unfortunately, this week wasn’t Dean’s, as he chased a wide ball in the subsequent over and had to trudge off for just 7 runs. Nisar at the other end would accumulate nicely in the first few overs, taking singles and twos where available. Joining him was Khan, who started nicely before being the second victim of Pedder, again caught. The same fate would befall Kumar, who came and went without troubling the scorers as he became another one to be caught behind. Hingston would join Nisar with a slight rebuild required, although the score had continued to tick along. He would play a more conservative innings than normal, picking off the bad ball but rotating the strike well on his way to a score of 24. It would be the first change of bowling that brought the downfall of Hingston shortly before drinks, another man caught.

Davey joined Nisar, who had continued to pick up runs and was moving along towards an almost inevitable 50. They would run hard and well and push the score over 100, again looking to score off the bad ball which seemed to be coming at least once an over. Davey would reach 20 before holing out to the man on the deep mid wicket boundary, only to find out later that the ball should have been awarded a No-Ball for the bowler breaking the non-striker’s end wicket in his delivery. Nisar reached 50 shortly after but was unfortunately bowled the very next ball by one of the better balls of the day. The younger Nisar and Arif would bat nicely, and each rotate the strike well, but would both be dismissed in quick succession off of the pick of London Colney’s bowlers. Roos and Winfield would follow, but both would be dismissed without seriously troubling the scorers. The last four wickets falling for less than 20 runs. 135 was the score for the 4s, a score that felt short of where it should be, but with the richness of bowling resources the team possessed there was positivity in the camp.

After a short break Roos and Dean would take the new ball and would start to impress the onlooking fielders immediately. Both bowled with good lines from the start, and similarly with great pace, especially for Roos who confirmed to the team that “Alan Donald used to be my nickname”. The first wicket didn’t take long to come, Roos starting the first of his day’s wickets with a searing yorker that bowled the Colney opener. After this, the pair continued to push for wickets, and Roos would continue to find them at regular intervals, producing two more excellent bowled wickets and one caught, as he rattled through the Colney top order. At the other end Dean kept the pressure up and was unlucky to only pick up one wicket in a spell that seriously deserved more. His wicket coming on the last ball of his spell, only to be rewarded with another over by the gleeful Saunders.

The first spells left London Colney at 31-4 and concluded to rapturous applause from the onlooking St Alban’s fielders who had had relatively little to do in the first 15 overs.

Replacing the openers were Winfield and Davey, who looked to bowl tightly, squeeze the run rate and pick up wickets when the batsmen looked to force the issue. They performed this task well, both sticking to task and bowling several maidens in their spells. Davey would be the first to gain reward from the tactic, claiming four wickets in the innings with a mixture of filth and half decent bowling. Winfield would be unlucky to complete his seven overs without reward but conceding only 15 runs was a fine spell.

Saunders would come on to snaffle the last wicket only two balls into his spell, exclaiming that he’d bowled significantly more than the week before!

A good win by 60 runs for the 4s, who weren’t playing the strongest of opponents. They will still feel they need to do more with the bat, as a side who are struggling to break 150 scores consistently. But a seriously good bowling display spearheaded by Roos and Dean more than made up for it. On to Stevenage, as the 4s look to deliver their first back-to-back winning run since June.

(Match Report by Sam Davey)

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
9w 3b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
13
135		        
Nauman Nisar b P.Hadley 50 51 4 98.04
Ashish Dean ct D. Pedder 7 8 1 87.50
Najib Khan ct D. Pedder 2 12 16.67
Praveen Kumar ct D. Pedder 0 4 0
Ben Hingston ct P.Smith 24 26 3 92.31
Sam Davey ct P.Smith 20 16 2 125.00
Sulaiman Nisar ct P.Smith 7 15 46.67
Nadeem Arif lbw P.Smith 7 10 70.0
Nathan Roos b P.Smith 3 3 100
Tim Winfield ct S. Bharj 1 4 25.00
Andy Saunders Not Out  0 2 0

London Colney 2XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
D.Pedder9.012538.332.78
J. Pinkham8.023600.004.50
P.Hadley7.0037137.005.29
P.Smith7.003156.204.43
S. Bharj1.00111.001.00

London Colney 2XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 1lb 
for 10 wickets
6
77 (30.2 overs)		     
J. Gibbons b N.Roos 12
M.Bradley b N.Roos 6
B.Lutton b N.Roos 8
S.Bharj ct N.Roos 5
J.Pinkham b A.Dean 0
D.Pedder ct A.Saunders 19
P.Seymour b S.Davey 6
J.Lawrence ct S.Davey 0
P.Hadley lbw S.Davey 9
K.Lawrence ct S.Davey 0
P.Smith Not Out  0

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nathan Roos8.021944.752.37
Ashish Dean7.0219119.002.71
Sam Davey8.021944.752.37
Tim Winfield7.001500.002.14
Andy Saunders0.21010.000.00