Scorecard

Northwood CC v St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI on Sun 21 Jul 2024 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost By 5 wickets

Match report The Sunday 1s travelled to Northwood to continue their tilt at Division 2 glory. Newly crowned co-skipper of the 2s Rory Law had the reigns, and omens are good for the mans tossing ability going forward. Tails called, and the limbs ensued in the Saints camp as the Northwood skippers head dropped to cue that the result was not to his liking. The silent Northwood contingent were then politely reminded to get their whites on by the celebrating mob, and thus the tone was set for a friendly Sunday atmosphere.

West was back in action following his cricketing hiatus, and had prepared his body and mind in exemplary fashion with a late one on the St Albans town circuit the night previous. Partnered with Baylis, he did his best to recall the ramblings of his skipper Rory in Veeda the night before, as everyone knows that is the most appropriate location for discussing batting technique and approach for a large chess valley knock. Baylis managed the easy part (scoring), whilst West valiantly kept out many a vicious seed from the Northwood openers. The display of defensive capability by a man in his state was admired by all in the vicinity, and the shocked silence that followed when their overseas spinner turned one from 6th stump to hit top of off was chilling. Northwood knew they’d got away with one as West was robbed of a Sunday ton yet again, falling for an exquisite 2 (24).

With the oppo’s tails up, and with the Saints top order rocking from the loss of their talisman, a few more wickets fell as DB and Church felt undeserving of West’s robbed time at the crease. Stu’s rich vain of form continued as he notched his second 20+ score in as many days, and with Rory and Badshead in attendance they will surely have one eye on him for their first 2XI team selection next weekend.

Rory and Nick commenced the rebuild, whilst the Saints sideline contingent turned their attention to a spot of lunch, choosing to ignore the start of Rory’s knock which we’re reliably informed contained some decent shot making. Domino’s clearly knew this team had made the trip down the M25, with an offer on their range of medium sized pizzas proving too tantalising to ignore. At drinks, the instructions to Ralfe and Law from the padded up Murph was simple - “see off the next 10, as I’ve ordered stuffed crusts”.

Ralfe padded away a straight one to Murph’s dismay, and he was soon tucking in to a different sort of pie. During a lengthy wait after a few lost balls thanks to a couple of outrageously large straight sixes from skipper Rory, Murphy was stranded in a pizza style no mans land. Could he make it to the sideline and back to his crease in time for a quick two bites? Rory stood on his bat and turned him down. It was the opinion of all on the sideline that there was surely a slice there.

After a well made 17, Murph soon had his fill of stuffed crust, and the dulcet tenor tones of Andrea Bocelli were shortly after ringing out across Northwood as Rory flayed through the covers to bring up a quite sensational hundred comprising 14 fours, and 4 sixes. Well played.

Some late innings gubbing from Winners, partnered with a trademark cheeky Rayden innings saw the Sunday 1s to 276.

Amazingly, this did not prove to be enough runs.

The Pizza sweats were in full flow as JC and Badsy were given the new chess valley ball. After Ben got us going by snicking off their ASICS wearing overseas, a slightly disrespectful celebration followed as you could be forgiven for thinking the Saints had won the game. JC then decided he didn’t like this new CV pill very much, and invited the Northwood opener to hit it as far away from the ground as possible to which he duly obliged. With a used herts league ball in his hand, he had no excuses for what followed. Fits of laughter, from his own team, as he departed the attack after conceding 24 from one over. We’re all very glad to have him back in the fold.

From this point on, the Northwood batters seemed at ease with the task in hand. In truth, the Saints were not good in the field, bar one man. West. He was the only one showcasing some semblance of effort, covering every inch of the Northwood outfield, but even he couldn’t stem the flow of runs off the bat from the bowling on offer.

With the opener going to a classy 117, Stu was the man to remove him and sent him off with a parting gift on how to not overplay the reverse sweep. A lesson the Northwood man will take on board, as with 30 runs required, 8 wickets left and plenty of balls remaining he should surely learn to apply himself for his team’s benefit.

West was finally brought on to bowl, but it was too little too late. His 1-1 off 2 left a bitter taste in skipper Rory’s mouth as he surely wondered what might’ve been. Northwood in the end ran out deserved winners on the balance of play, scraping home with 4 wickets in hand.

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
6w 14b 6lb 
for 10 wickets
26
276		        
Zach West b K Sadagopan 2 24 8.33 1
Dan Baylis ct S Reeve b L Neethling 22 23 4 95.65
James Church ct S Ganesh Govindaraj b L Neethling 11 13 2 84.62
Stuart Murray ct S Ganesh Govindaraj b J Kenny 22 32 3 1 68.75
Rory Law lbw S Ganesh 105 71 14 4 147.89
Nick Ralfe lbw S Ganesh 19 18 4 105.56
Adam Murphy lbw S Ganesh 17 25 3 68.00
Thomas Rayden ct S Ganesh Govindaraj b S Ganesh 26 16 6 162.50 1
Jacob Winfield Not Out  20 14 3 142.86
Joey Curran lbw J Baron 3 4 75.00
Ben Adshead ct S Reeve b L Neethling 5 8 62.50

Northwood CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Lohan Neethling8.4034311.333.92
Kumar Sadagopan10.0135135.003.50
Akshay Rana5.003800.007.60
James Kenny7.0142142.006.00
Sabaresh Ganesh10.0054413.505.40
Yogi Soni3.003800.0012.67
Jonnie Baron2.0015115.007.50

Northwood CC Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
7w 6b 7lb 
for 6 wickets
20
280 (42.2 overs)		     
James Kenny lbw A Murphy 121 14 3
Kumar Sadagopan ct T Rayden b B Adshead 15 2 1
Stuart Reeve lbw A Murphy 91 13 1
Ben Sargeant ct Z West b S Murray 2
Selva Ganesh Govindaraj run out  (D Baylis) 6
Jonnie Baron b Z West 21 2 1
Sabaresh Ganesh Not Out  8
Trishul Patel Not Out  0
Lohan Neethling  
Yogi Soni  
Akshay Rana  

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joey Curran4.004600.0011.50
Ben Adshead6.0123123.003.83
Nick Ralfe6.004800.008.00
Jacob Winfield6.004300.007.17
Adam Murphy10.0058229.005.80
Stuart Murray8.2051151.006.12
Zach West2.01111.000.50

  • Umpire :
    All
  • Scorer :
    All