Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Bentley Heath CC 2nd XI on Sat 09 Aug 2025 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 101 runs

Match report St Albans 4xi took to the hallowed turf of Sandpit Lane having not won a match since June. Up against a Bentley Heath who were snapping at the heels of the Saints, a win today was non-negotiable.
Stand-in skipper Crisp was appraised of the reverse fixture, which St Albans had won in rain affected (and possibly somewhat controversial) circumstances. A little bit of needle was therefore expected, but the match was played in excellent spirits throughout.
St Albans won the toss and elected to field on a deck which looked good for an August wicket at Sandpit - it played fair and true with few gremlins to report.
New ball duties were handed to Husain and Vijender. Altaf found prodigious swing and bowled with good pace, beating the bat on numerous occasions, and Utti settled in to a lovely rhythm coming up the hill from the Sandpit Road end. Early breakthroughs were found, Utti (8 overs 2 for 32) dismissing one of the openers with a feathered edge behind, and Altaf (6 overs 1 for 26) clean bowling the other. 38/3 and St Albans well on top.
The third wicket brought Gallagher to the crease. Having scored back to back to back centuries earlier in the year the Saints knew he was the danger man. He rolled with it, and little by little (enough with the Oasis puns there) he built the score, and at 129/3 Bentley Heath had pulled things back. Davey was called upon to attempt to break the partnership, but tweaked something in his back and could only complete two overs. He was unfortunate to not take a wicket, creating a chance that was unfortunately shelled at point. Enter PD (8 overs 2 for 38) who took two in two, and Suli Nisar (6 overs 2 for 23), and 129/3 became 129/6…game back on! With 10 overs remaining, Saints hoped to tidy things up and finish the innings quickly. Wily Walker (re)entered the fray, tidying up the tail with figures of (7.4 overs, 3 for 28).
Some excellent catching (2 each for Prath and Walks, one for Crisp behind the stumps), super ground fielding, and strong encouragement throughout; St Albans left the field thinking that a target of 164 was eminently chaseable.
Things did not go to plan with the bat, St Albans dismissed for a paltry 62, Andy Wright top scoring with 15. Some interesting dismissals (5 ducks, 6 clean bowled, with PD leaving a straight one, and Prath given LBW when to all the world it felt the ball was dead and a leg bye complete), but not a lot to write home about. Subsiding in 21.1 overs, the Saints did not show the same application they had when in the field. A concerted effort in the final throes of the season and the promotion hopes could yet be resurrected.

Bentley Heath CC 2nd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
8w 3b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
12
163 (37.4 overs)		     
Dave Tagg b  A Husain 11 30 2 36.67
Craig Collis ct  T Crisp b U Vijender 4 10 1 40.0
James Medforth ct  A Walker b U Vijender 19 26 4 73.08
Tahir Malik ct  A Walker b S Nisar 26 47 6 55.32
Chris Gallagher b  P Deshpande 60 47 11 1 127.66
Anura Rajapaksa b  P Deshpande 0 1 0
Farrukh Zulfiqar b  A Walker 9 19 2 47.37
Senura Perera ct  P Khatavkar b S Nisar 7 25 1 28.00
Mubashar Zulfiqar lbw  A Walker 2 7 28.57
Ismail Khan ct  P Khatavkar b A Walker 5 7 1 71.43
Lahiru Weerasinghe Not Out  8 7 2 114.29

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Md Altaf Husain6.0125125.004.17
Uttam Vijender8.0132216.004.00
Andrew Walker7.422839.333.65
Prathamesh Deshpande8.0138219.004.75
Sam Davey2.001300.006.50
Sulaiman Nisar6.0223211.503.83

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1w 10b  
for 10 wickets
11
62		        
Andy Wright ct  Unsure b A Rajapaksa 15 35 2 42.86
Prathamesh Deshpande b  L Weerasinghe 1 20 5.00
Nadeem Arif b  C Gallagher 0 4 0
Prath Khatavkar lbw  A Rajapaksa 13 13 2 100 2
John Shaw b  M Zulfiqar 8 15 1 53.33
Toby Crisp b  A Rajapaksa 0 3 0 1
Sulaiman Nisar b  M Zulfiqar 0 4 0
Sam Davey ct  Unsure b I Khan 8 12 1 66.67
Md Altaf Husain b  M Zulfiqar 0 3 0
Andrew Walker lbw  M Zulfiqar 0 1 0 2
Uttam Vijender Not Out  6 17 1 35.29

Bentley Heath CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Chris Gallagher5.02515.001.00
Lahiru Weerasinghe4.0011111.002.75
Anura Rajapaksa4.002538.336.25
Ismail Khan2.10313.001.38
Mubashar Zulfiqar6.04842.001.33