Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Stevenage 4XI on Sat 17 Aug 2024 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 1 wickets

Match report Another summers day, another riveting and dramatic day for the St Albans 4th XI.

The day dawned with a few events of note; namely Pelham trying to impress on his first start of the season by turning up significantly earlier than the meet time to set up for his team mates. Secondly, the agreement between St Albans and Stevenage players that they had both been victims of significant miscarriages of the laws of cricket against a team that will remain nameless but sounds similar to the popular chocolate brand Bournville. Finally, a suggestion by the selected Thomas that he should drop down to the 5s in order to allow Roos to be called up after failing to put up his availability correctly.

And so, with spirits high and bridges built the captains went away to do the toss, and St Albans would be invited to bat by their opponents. Dean and Deshpande opened on the day, and the pitch immediately showed that it had significant demons, balls popping over and hitting the heads of the openers at regular intervals. However, the pair were able to pick up runs slowly but surely, seeing off the good opening bowlers successfully and laying a foundation for the team. Deshpande would be the first to fall, on 10, bowled by the first change bowler. That would be the start of a mini collapse for St Albans before drinks, Melling, Khedekar and Khatavkar all falling cheaply. The team reached the drinks break 5 down, with Hingston joining Dean and smashing a couple of quick boundaries before being caught. The initial foundation had been proven that it was built on rather crumbly ground.

Davey joined Dean after the drinks break and didn’t last long, and so Roos came to the crease looking to justify his selection (Thomas having hit a 50 on the adjacent pitch). He would hit some nice boundaries all around the wicket but fell on 12, another man caught on the day. Pelham and Winfield managed to play some nice shots in the tail, both adding to the score, but the final three wickets would fall with St Albans on only 112. Dean the highlight of the innings, as he often is, nearly batting through for a well-made 33, but falling late on, bowled looking to push forward the rate.

St Albans had a strong bowling attack, and therefore there was belief that they could still defend the low total. Dean and Roos would open, with the hope that their extra pace would take advantage of the variable bounce present. Dean started incredibly strongly, taking wickets almost from the start, he would dismiss 4 of the Stevenage top 5 in a brilliant spell that was deserving of a 5’fer. Roos at the other end bowled well, but was unlucky not to take wickets in this first spell, his pace not quite as prevalent as the previous week. Throughout this period Stevenage quietly added runs to their total, the 112 target being chased down slowly but surely.

Davey and Winfield replaced the openers and were immediately generating chances. Davey denied a sure LBW in his opening overs and a dropped catch going down shortly after. A sign of things to come? Winfield was similar, generating multiple appeals and getting his reward, two wickets in his opening overs. The pair did however give Stevenage chances, both going for a boundary each over they bowled at the start. They did however get into their rhythm, heavily restricting the rate for multiple overs throughout the middle. Stevenage now needed less than half the required runs in plenty of overs.

Wickets were needed, and Roos and Saunders were called upon to provide them. Roos would strike almost immediately in his second spell, an unbelievably good spell of bowling which yielded three wickets for no runs. St Albans needed just the one wicket to win, Stevenage 10 runs.

What was to follow was a questionable application of the laws of cricket. A plumb LBW shout off Saunders? Turned down. An edge to the slip? It came off a wooden arm. A four here and a single there and the target was nearly reached, St Albans would put down a chance to win it, and were left dejected as the set batsman hit the winning runs.
The end of the game was coupled with bad feeling as St Albans felt they had been robbed of a game they deserved to win after a great bowling performance. The watching captain on the adjacent pitch would comment on the fact St Albans had been burgled, sparking even more frustration in the camp. Stevenage didn’t celebrate, maybe signs of a conscience not fully aligned with winning.

We were again 40-50 runs short, the story of the season for the 4s who have lacked consistency with the bat. But again, they can hold their heads high based on their bowling performance. Chances were missed and catches were put down, which didn’t help in a close game. Oh well, onto the next one.

(Match report by Sam Davey)


St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 12w 1b 3lb 
for 10 wickets
17
112		        
Ashish Dean b S Harihara Venkatraman 33 74 3 44.59
Prathamesh Deshpande b R Perendi 10 32 1 31.25
Peter Melling ct Unsure b R Perendi 6 10 1 60.0
Daiwik Khedekar b N Krovvidi 1 2 50.0
Prath Khatavkar lbw N Krovvidi 1 2 50.0
Ben Hingston ct Unsure b S Harihara Venkatraman 12 11 2 109.09
Sam Davey b S Harihara Venkatraman 4 10 40.0
Nathan Roos ct Unsure b W Ali 12 19 1 63.16
George Pelham ct Unsure b S Harihara Venkatraman 7 12 1 58.33
Tim Winfield Not Out  8 18 1 44.44
Andy Saunders lbw N Krovvidi 1 14 7.14

Stevenage 4XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Viplav Gangavarapu5.021000.002.00
Waqar Ali8.0119119.002.37
Ram Perendi6.021125.501.83
Tom Palmer4.011100.002.75
Subramaniam Harihara Venkatraman8.022446.003.00
Nikhil Krovvidi6.412538.333.75

Stevenage 4XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 6w 3b 3lb 
for 9 wickets
13
113 (37.0 overs)		     
Abdul Wahab b A Dean 1
Tom Palmer ct Unsure b A Dean 3
Anwar Mohammed ct Unsure b A Dean 20 3
Dipak Savate ct Unsure b A Dean 10 2
Viplav Gangavarapu ct Unsure b N Roos 14 28 1 50.0
Prashanth Kumar Kammari b T Winfield 6
Bhanu Kanakala ct Unsure b T Winfield 0
Waqar Ali Not Out  46 60 9 76.67
Ram Perendi ct Unsure b N Roos 0 1 0
Nikhil Krovvidi b N Roos 0 3 0
Subramaniam Harihara Venkatraman Not Out  2 10 20.0

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nathan Roos7.001635.332.29
Ashish Dean8.022245.502.75
Sam Davey8.022600.003.25
Tim Winfield5.0022211.004.40
Andy Saunders8.031200.001.50
George Pelham3.001100.003.67