Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Southgate Compton 2XI on Sat 31 Aug 2024 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 43 runs

Match report There was an Autumnal feel to SLCG as the mighty 4s arrived to face league leaders Southgate Compton. Blustery conditions saw players digging into their kitbags for jumpers and bowlers wondering how they could convince their skipper not to bowl them up the hill into the gale.

Skipper Saunders lost the toss of course and was asked to bat by the opposition skipper who sweetened the blow – as these were lovely bowling conditions – by informing him that they only had 9 players.

Manny Nisar and Ashish Dean strode to the middle and set about the bowling in uncharacteristic 4s fashion with Manny the aggressor and Ash playing a more circumspect role. With 50 brought up in the 8th over the pair put on 74 for the opening partnership before drinks. Sadly, neither man made it to the orange and blackcurrant juice delights as first Manny dabbed one to slip after a well-made 37 and then Ash was LBW after a carefully crafted 16.

Wicketkeeper Ben Hingston swung rather too enthusiastically at a straight one and was bowled on 4 soon after, but the other new man at the crease Najib Khan was settling in for a longer stay as he started to carve open the decent bowling attack.

Although none of his teammates could muster any staying power from there on in, he found himself with enough of the strike to accumulate a fine innings 80 not out, which was in stark contrast to the paltry 27 runs combined posted by batsmen 4 to 11.

Credit to the nine men of the opposition as well, they fielded like demons......

Still, a total of 196 runs achieved, which as connoisseurs know, in a 40 over match at SLCG is an impressive total.

Southgate Compton’s turn with the bat didn’t start well – Nirban was excellently caught in the slips by Ethan Witty from the very first ball of the innings. Just as well in some ways, because he informed everyone as he ran off the pitch that his wife was in labour ...

The opening spell of 5 overs each from Ashish Dean and Tim Winfield yielded no further wickets despite some disciplined bowling and Saunders brought himself and the aforementioned Witty on first change. Both nabbed a wicket , dismissing the 2nd and 3rd batsmen respectively after they had notched a decent if somewhat streaky at times partnership of 59 and the shorthanded opposition were 3 down .

In-ducker maestro Nadeem Arif and leg spinner Fin McNab were next up and ran through the remaining batsmen with Nadeem snaring 3 wickets (including the dangerous Pant who was caughtbehind on 49) and Finn picking up the other two , one of which was a smart stumping by Ben Hingston .

Also worthy of a mention in despatches were decent fielding performances from our 3 youngsters Ethan Witty, Sulaiman Nisar and Daiwik Khedekar – definitely Saints stars of the future.....

The 4s will finish solidly mid-table this season but it’s always satisfying to beat a team who should get promoted come next Saturday, even if they couldn’t field a full contingent, and it is worth pointing out the Southgate Compton lads were by far and away the nicest, fairest bunch we’ve played all season, which after some of the self-umpiring horror shows we’ve had to endure in recent weeks was a very welcome change.

(Match report by Andy Saunders)

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 20w 10b 3lb 
for 9 wickets
34
196		        
Ashish Dean lbw A Patel 16 1
Nauman Nisar ct Unsure b K Nirban 37 1
Najib Khan Not Out  80 9
Daiwik Khedekar lbw K Nirban 4
Ben Hingston b K Nirban 5 1 1 1
Ethan Witty b T SriSatkunasingham 6 1
Sulaiman Nisar ct Unsure b T SriSatkunasingham 4
Nadeem Arif ct Unsure b Unsure 4
Tim Winfield ct Unsure b P Vyas 4
Fin McNab b Unsure 0 1 0
Andy Saunders Not Out  2 6 33.33

Southgate Compton 2XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Thusagar SriSatkunasingham8.0032216.004.00
Pratik Vyas8.0054154.006.75
Krunal Nirban8.012839.333.50
Azhar Patel8.0228128.003.50
Nikhil Kanani5.002900.005.80
Ravi Sodha2.001100.005.50
Unsure1.00120.501.00

Southgate Compton 2XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
10w 6b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
17
153 (32.5 overs)		     
Krunal Nirban ct E Witty b A Dean 0
Keshav Kapoor ct B Hingston b E Witty 25 4
Nikhil Kanani b A Saunders 27 4
Thusagar SriSatkunasingham st B Hingston b F McNabb 22 1
Ramesh Pant b N Arif 49 4
Pratik Vyas b F McNabb 6
Pez De Alwis lbw N Arif 1
Azhar Patel b N Arif 6 1
Ravi Sodha Not Out  0
   
   

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ashish Dean5.0016116.003.20
Tim Winfield5.001900.003.80
Andy Saunders7.0031131.004.43
Ethan Witty3.0019119.006.33
Nadeem Arif6.5030310.004.39
Fin McNab6.0029214.504.83