Scorecard

North Enfield CC 2nd XI v St Albans Cricket Club 4XI on Sat 10 May 2025 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 30 runs

Match report How about this weather? At the start of last season, it was all double jumpers, handwarmers, umbrellas and not being able to get a roller onto the square. What a difference this early May has proved; glorious sunshine, rock hard wickets, searching out shade on the boundary…

Saints arrived at picturesque North Enfield CC, a quirky little ground tucked down a winding lane, who’s most striking feature is an ancient oak tree planted several metres inside the boundary rope.

“What’s the score with the tree?” asked a bemused Skipper Saunders. “What tree?” replied the opposition, “the tree is invisible.” It turns out that you cannot be caught from a ball ricocheting off the tree and any shot that does strike the tree does not automatically accumulate runs. In other words, the tree is always a ‘live participant’ in the game.

Anyway , after presenting U15 rising star Neel Aswani with his league debut cap, Saunders lost the toss (obviously) and was , rather surprisingly, put into bat on what looked like a belter of a track. 4XI stalwarts Manny Nisar (26) and Ashish Dean (14) opened, and both were cruising along comfortably before both were dismissed in identical fashion - bowled by a well-executed yorker- within the space of two minutes, bringing to the crease league debutant Andy Wright, a winter recruit from Wheathampstead and the indomitable Najib Khan.

Najib notched a typically elegant 19 before departing with Andy demonstrating why he was the 2nd highest scoring batsman is the 5XI’s league last season with a combination of deft touches and hard hit boundaries – 14 fours providing the foundation of his superb knock of 86 before finally departing to warm applause from his teammates.

Suli Nisar with 8 and another debutant John Shaw with 3 came and went in short order and it was left to the number 7 Utti Vijender to show his enduring class with a beautifully judged and chanceless 47 not out, ably supported by Andrew Walker (22) and John Webber (4*) at the other end.

“Bat the overs” were the skipper instructions in the pre-game huddle and that we did, putting on a formidable looking 244-7 in our 40 overs.

Ash Dean and youngster Neel Aswani were tossed the new ball and both got down to work on a deck offering little to the bowlers. The required run rate of 6-an-over didn’t appear to phase the opposition openers, and throughout the first 10 overs they were comfortably up with the rate, with pace on the ball proving to their liking.

A switch to a slower strategy with the introduction of the wily bowling veterans Walker and Saunders (sadly no Winfeld to complete the classic WWS triumvirate today), saw the run rate slow appreciably, and Walks snared the first wicket of the innings in his second over, clean bowling one of well-set openers.

John Shaw was given the ball second change but in truth he was rusty and struggled to find his rhythm, boosting the extras column exponentially but showing character and sticking with it to get his reward with 2 important wickets, including the other dangerous looking opener with a well-judged caught and bowled.

He was partnered with Utti Vijender who followed up his batting heroics with a bowling spell recalling his glory years in the upper echelons of the club, and finishing with 2-35 from his 8 overs.

With the score not looking quite as comfortable as Saints would like , particularly as extras – who eventually top scored with 60 – were yet to be adequately stemmed and opposition batsman looking calm and competent, the double Andys - Walker and Saunders - were brought back to finish their allocations and with a spell of 4 tight overs , the run rate felt like it was getting back under control.

When Ashish and Neel came back into the fray, the game swung inexorably in Saints favour with Neel taking another important wicket and Ash, wicketless in his first spell , smashing through the tail with back-to-back off stump jaffas to end with figures of 2-41 , which would have been a lot more impressive had he not conceded a very uncharacteristic 16 from his last six balls! “I was trying something different skip,” was his excuse.

There was a lot to like about this opening performance of the campaign – Andy Wright and Utti Vijender’s excellent innings, Neel Aswani’s league debut where he proved himself up to the task with ball and in the field, some mature bowling in the second half of the oppo innings from the veterans and a great attitude and comradery within this group of players, something that will serve us well over the next 17 matches.

(Match report by Andy Saunders)


St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 12w  
for 7 wickets
13
244		        
Nauman Nisar b O Halley 26 4
Ashish Dean b O Halley 14 2
Najib Khan ct Unsure b P Duke 19 2 1
Andy Wright ct Unsure b G Orton 86 14
Sulaiman Nisar ct Unsure b G Orton 8 1
John Shaw ct Unsure b G Orton 3
Uttam Vijender Not Out  47 9
Andrew Walker ct Unsure b D Malleson 22 4
John Webber Not Out  4
Neel Aswani  
Andy Saunders  

North Enfield CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
David Malleson8.0155155.006.87
Otis Halley8.0240220.005.00
Paul Duke8.0048148.006.00
Ivian Varbanov7.004000.005.71
Garry Orton7.0041313.675.86
Matthew Bacon2.002000.0010.00

North Enfield CC 2nd XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
214 (40.0 overs)		     
William Munt b A Walker 29 5
David Brandon ct Unsure b J Shaw 39 4
Stuart Halley ct Unsure b U Vijender 21 3
Paul Duke b J Shaw 4 1
Garry Orton Not Out  41 6
Andrew Corgan ct Unsure b U Vijender 9 1
Heston Attwell ct Unsure b N Aswani 2
Matthew Bacon b A Dean 0
Otis Halley b A Dean 0
Ivian Varbanov b N Aswani 9 2
David Malleson Not Out  0

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ashish Dean8.0041220.505.13
Neel Aswani5.0046223.009.20
Andrew Walker8.0117117.002.13
Andy Saunders8.003000.003.75
Uttam Vijender8.0035217.504.38
John Shaw3.0045222.5015.00