Scorecard

Holtwhite Trinibis Libraries v St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI on Sun 04 May 2025 at 1pm
St Albans Cricket Club Won

Match report Well bloody hell, that was a quick winter.

After months of shadow-batting in the mirror, scrolling through Mark Wood related TikToks and daydreaming of a lunch of a lukewarm paneer roll in a chilly field, we can finally welcome back the most well-liked team in the club: the mighty Sunday 2XI. The venue was Holtwhites Trinibis Libraries and the weather, while starting out relatively warm, took a decidedly frosty turn, not unlike our bowling innings. More to follow on that drama later.

Given that almost half of his team could still be found stuffed inside a Prius halfway down the M25, stalwart skipper Nauman ‘Manny’ Nisar successfully led negotiations to see the Saints bat first. He was relieved to be brought to a full XI a mere two minutes before kickoff, and wasted zero time telling Walsh “just because the Women’s team doesn’t want you anymore doesn’t mean you don’t have to umpire, get your counter out and start paying attention for the match report later son.” (Panel umpires are severely overrated in THIS writer’s opinion.)

Our opening pair strapped on their armour and sauntered on to the pitch with glee in their eyes and malice in their hearts, consisting of Mighty Manny himself and Prathamesh ‘PD’ Deshapande. The pair behaved themselves to begin with, showing due respect to the good deliveries and suitably punishing the sparse bad ones. Manny was unfortunate to fall on 7 to a delivery that barely left the ground (this pitch was a minefield), while PD stuck around a bit longer to notch a contextually-crucial 29. The death rattle of the stumps behind him signalled the end of his innings, and ushered our next pair to the crease.

Andy Wright (there are too many bloody Andys in this club) and Ben ‘Biceps’ Hingston were our next form of attack. Wright would go on to knock a lengthy innings compared to the majority of his teammates, keeping the score ticking along nicely with a number of quick singles and doubles, striking the odd boundary to keep the fielders appropriately intimidated. Biceps took his usual approach in stark contrast to Wright: he’s not one to die wondering, and wasted no time in bludgeoning his first ball over the rope for 4. A slower bowler had come on by this point, with loopy deliveries going high enough to collect snow on their way down. PD and Walsh were dutifully filling in the scorebook, and were salivating over the prospect of Biceps doing one of two things: smack the writing off the ball or hear the fatal clink of the bails. Neither happened, as Biceps was extremely unfortunate to fall to a superb diving catch, but not before registering a quick fire 9. Wright would later be dismissed on 25, but impressed all spectators with his tempered approach and ability to build a convincing innings.

Next up on the Tavah-sponsored menu: newcomer Sammad and scooping extraordinaire Suleiman ‘Suli’ Nisar. Sammad, like Biceps, wasted no time in hitting the ball like it owed him money, with two 4s from the off and a single before falling to another catch. Suli, however, was the superstar of the Saints with his bat today. After being joined in the warzone by new 5XI skipper Imran ‘Immy’ Ahmed, Suli set about the task like an absolute menace. Recognising that we were lacking somewhat in the runs department, he played a lengthy, composed innings with sublime shots reaching the boundary and finding gaps in the field for sharp singles and doubles. He frankly put the majority of his cohort to shame, displaying an unreal level of the skill with the bat for his age and an excellent awareness of the context of the game. After a while of giving PD heart palpitations with the amount of scoops and reverse sweeps he was playing, Suli would eventually retire on an unbeaten 51*. Suli, you were absolutely sensational with that bat today. Immy would later get jealous and join Suli in retirement on 34*, leaving the field with the sentiment “we have several new players today, let them have a chance with the bat”. A true gent of the game.

The remainder of our batting innings would proceed with little drama, seeing Altaf ‘Sunday Gun’ Hussein and newcomer Mustafa notch 11* and 12* respectively, while returning prodigal son Dulon Ahmed would hammer 5 and see himself fall victim to a sharp stumping. Needless to say, Walsh was neither needed nor wanted concerning the bat, left looking online for a suitable Facebook Marketplace page on which to flog his pads and bat (25 quid for the lot if anyone’s interested, little to no use in terms of condition).

Tea came and went, the only event of note being the appearance of a fox that looked absolutely decrepit: grey and haggard, with the only rougher sight in recent memory being Andy Melling the morning after securing promotion last year (the Farmer’s Boy will do that to a man after 4am). The Saints then took to the task of defending our total of 227. A very respectable score in everyone’s eyes, bar one bloke who wasn’t even playing in our game and had clearly made full use of the pub next door, who decided it was his job to approach PD and belligerently inform him that “Holtwhites are a serious batting side, you St Albans lot are gonna get battered, you need at least 250”. Shame he wasn’t good enough to get selected for either game at Holtwhites today, couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke.

With these words of sambuca-born encouragement ringing in our ears, we opened with the combined might of Sammad and Altaf. Sammad wasted no time in scaring the life out of keeper Hingston with his unprecedented pace, leaving Biceps begging him “please I’m sure you’ve got a slower ball in your locker.” Despite this pace, Sammad was unfortunate to go wicketless, however he did an exemplary job of keeping runs hard to come by. Altaf, seeing this, decided he was the wicket-daddy today, and struck the first blow in his second over, clean bowling an opener and going on to claim a further two wickets by bowling another and PD claiming an outstanding catch at mid off, Altaf just missing out on a potential hat trick by a hair. These wickets proved crucial, as while the aforementioned boozehound may have had a few, he wasn’t lying about the batting ability of Holtwhites.

The remaining opener would soon begin to score more freely, striking a number of 4s and 6s, threatening the safety of neighbouring houses more than once. The majority of his teammates were only slightly watered-down versions: they too would continue bludgeoning the ball to every conceivable part of the boundary, reaching a fair few 50s in little time. The concern of the Saints was growing: while we had felt perfectly comfortable with our 200+ total and the bowling in our locker, things were suddenly shaping up to come crashing down. Walsh was brought on to provide a change of pace with his medium out-swingers but was promptly pumped for 22 in his first over. He was taken off immediately and was promised to be brought back once these threatening batters had been dealt with. He retreated back to mid on with shame in his eyes, a chip on his shoulder and a vape in his pocket that had just run out of battery. “I’ll be back” he murmured, stroking his too-long beard. “Just you wait until I charge my vape at drinks.”

PD and Immy took the reins, with PD’s banana-shaped deliveries proving difficult to score from and Immy’s ability to turn the ball on glass baffling batters everywhere they went. Immy dealt the blow, dismissing another batter who was scoring too quickly for comfort, while PD did not reap the rewards of his bowling quality, going wicketless. Mustafa and Suli were our next test for the batters, with Mustafa starting strong but asking to be brought off after two overs, while Suli kept the batters honest and ensured that runs were hard fought.

Several drops in the field did not help with the morale of our beloved Saints and heads were starting to droop. Attitudes were quickly sagging in the face of a seemingly unstoppable force that was hell bent on chasing a total that we had been delighted to achieve, plus chances created on which we were failing to capitalise. But, as anyone who’s played for any Saints side ever will tell you: we don’t believe in throwing in that towel.

Walsh was brought back to replace Mustafa and started well, conserving the runs in his first two overs back and keeping the destructive number 5 to a minimum. Then, in his next over, the tide truly started to turn back in the favour of the Saints. After having been dropped two balls prior, number 5 misjudged Walsh’s faster ball, skying it straight up to fall back down into the hands of an elated Altaf. A sigh of relief for the Saints and a morale boost for a previously-defeated Walsh but only a short reprieve: the damage had already been done regarding the score and we still didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. Did this stop Walsh? Don’t be silly. Boosted by this breakthrough, Walsh continued the over and two balls later - a clean-bowled wicket to dismiss number 6 for nought! OK, promising stuff but let’s not get ahead of ourselves- another clean-bowled wicket the very next ball on the incoming batter! A reinvigorated Walsh ended the over with a fabulous triple wicket maiden, grinning from ear to ear with his teammates echoing his delight. This game had just turned on its head, from a lost cause to a shining opportunity. The oppo’s batting lineup seemed to be very top-heavy, and the bottom four couldn’t seem to cope with Walsh swinging the ball both ways from Enfield to St Albans and back again, nor could they seemingly cope with Suli’s off spinners slicing through the gaps in their defence. Suli took a sharp wicket, leaving only one wicket between the Saints and either a morale-murdering loss or a biblically-tight win after 35 overs of terror.

Walsh steps up for his potential hat trick ball:

Dot.

Dot.

Clean bowled.

The Saints walked away with a massive win despite the game being just a friendly: it’s always tough in the face of batting ability like that and can be very putting-out to have three or four batters making 50s from your bowling. However, as is always the case with the beautiful game: never count either side out until that final ball’s been bowled.

We were given a fright at first when batting: Suli comes on and knocks a first-ever 50 (the first of many) to get us back to a reasonable total. We were given a fright when our bowling attack was being torn to pieces by the top 5 batters: Walsh comes back on after getting rifled through in his first over to deliver a 4fer and the death knell of the Holtwhites innings. I’m genuinely doing my best not to “toot my own horn” here (while it may not seem like it), but to both Suli and Walsh: bloody well done lads.


Fineable Moments:

Ben for wearing a long sleeve and not letting the rest of us see those absolute cannons he calls biceps.

Walsh for shelling what should have been a regulation catch off Suli’s bowling, then watching Suli drop a much, MUCH harder one off Walsh’s own bowling and having the audacity to tell Suli “OK we’re even now mate.”

Skipper Manny for making Immy set the field and bowling lineup for the whole innings.

Suli for not realising that Manny had specifically asked Immy to do this and then assuming Immy must have had some kind of “look at me, LOOK AT ME: I’m the captain now” moment.

The local village drunk for A) deciding to approach PD purely to rudely tell him how badly we were going to lose, and B) being wildly incorrect because we’re absolutely gun (have some of that you knave).


Match report by Ciarán Walsh

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
229		        
Nauman Nisar Bowled  7
Prathamesh Deshpande Bowled  29
Andy Wright Bowled  25
Ben Hingston Caught  9
Ann Other Caught  9
Sulaiman Nisar Retired Not Out  51
Imran Ahmed Retired Not Out  34
Dulon Ahmed Stumped  5
Mostufa Fazle Alahi Not Out  14
Md Altaf Husain Not Out  11
Ciarán Walsh  

Holtwhite Trinibis Libraries Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Holtwhite Trinibis Libraries Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
200 (35.3 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ann Other8.003200.004.00
Md Altaf Husain8.0144314.675.50
Ciarán Walsh4.303348.257.33
Prathamesh Deshpande6.003300.005.50
Imran Ahmed4.0026126.006.50
Mostufa Fazle Alahi2.001200.006.00
Sulaiman Nisar3.0015115.005.00