Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI v R.N.V.R. CC on Sun 01 Jun 2025 at 1:30pm
Match was Drawn

Match report This Sunday saw our mighty Sunday 2XI play host to annual rivals RNVR CC, a roaming club that boasted a superstar in the form of notorious SACC legend Steve ‘Fergie’ Ferguson.

As has become tradition, this fixture was agreed to be a timed format, meaning that the first batting side may declare at any point and victory can only be secured through bowling the opposition all out. Fail to do so, and the result is a draw, regardless of the second batting team’s score. With this in mind, skipper Nauman ‘Manny’ Nisar won the toss and saw fit to put his side in to bat first, opening with the mythical might of himself and Ben ‘Biceps’ Hingston.

Manny started well, scoring fluently and showing due respect to the bowling, striking runs where he could and ensuring swift running between the wickets, the odd boundary peppered in for spice. Biceps made full use of his legendary muscles, scoring quickly and with aggression, keeping the bowling side suitably intimidated by bludgeoning the ball like it had made disrespectful comments about his mother. Manny was the first casualty, seeing himself caught on a respectable 32 and be replaced by Prathamesh ‘PD’ Deshpande.

PD echoed his skipper’s innings, batting with composure and tact, rotating the strike to an increasingly aggressive Hingston, who was beginning to rack up a sensational total. PD made a mark on the game before also seeing himself fall victim to a sharp catch, departing on 21. Andy Wright then approached, visibly still feeling the effects of having attempted to convince the bar staff last night “if I can down this Genesis in 5 seconds the next one’s free.” You have to respect the hustle, and by Jove he batted well: he held down an end effectively, rotating the strike to Biceps while scoring where he could to contribute to a rapidly-increasing total. Like his predecessors, he also found himself caught (this standard of fielding was belligerently good), departing on 12.

Throughout all of this, Biceps was busy doing what Biceps does best: smashing runs and kissing his own muscles when he thought people weren’t looking, the occasional wink towards his own wife on the boundary keeping him on his toes. Despite this showcase, Mrs Biceps still opted to go for a ‘siesta’, clearly bored of seeing Mr Biceps dominate the batting once again. Everyone started paying more attention, however, when Suli ‘Best Batter in the Family’ Nisar sauntered out to replace Wright. Suli batted up an absolute storm, his shot of choice today seemingly being the cut, reaching the boundary on many occasions and swift running between the wickets to see him reach a good total in relatively little time.

Meanwhile, Biceps had reached his ‘Nervous Nineties’, and had the rest of his side on tenterhooks. A potential first ever century was on the cards for our local muscle man, and did he deliver? Course he did. Biceps completed his century to raucous applause and cheers, removing his helmet, placing it on the handle of his bat and waving it towards the scorer’s table with glee. He then motioned to be retired, only to hear the dulcet tones of his skipper bellow “stay where you are you rat, we want more.” Biceps duly complied, scoring a further 12 before falling to ANOTHER catch, departing the pitch to begin a photoshoot courtesy of Pat Walsh.

Suli remained and was joined by various cameos, seeing Nasibullah ‘Maroof’ Maroofkhel up first. Maroof did what Maroof does best: leathered some boundaries and departed on a quick fire score. Meanwhile, Suli was closing in on his second ever 50, while his skipper/father was contemplating declaring around the team’s 250 mark, on which we were rapidly closing in. All notions of this were dispelled when Suli entered the 40s, and he was permitted the time to reach the milestone, despite a certain spectator trying to wheedle Manny into declaring when Suli reached 49. Bloody well batted Suli, now for the love of God please start doing it on Saturdays when I can get some more fantasy points out of you.

The total was set at a gargantuan 263 as we broke for tea, the familiar fragrance of various Tavah rolls enticing both teams off the pitch. As mentioned, the only avenue to victory afforded us by the format was through bowling out the entirety of the opposition. A tall order without Sunday Gun Altaf who ruled himself out with an injury on Saturday but far from an impossible task.

And so at around 4.45pm St Albans took to the field knowing 20 overs would be bowled from 6pm. Samad opened up from the Pavilion end with 2 maidens at the start of his 7 over spell conceding 34 runs but unable to find a breakthrough.

Newcomer Joe Bishop took Altaf’s role from the York Road end but found little room for error on the absolute belter of a batting track. He was replaced after 3 overs by PD who as per usual struck in his first over to give St Albans their first wicket by bowling the opener with an unplayable in-swinger. He finished his first spell with figures of 5 overs 1 wicket for 28. Unlucky not pick up another wicket when Maroof failed to hold on to a catch on the boundary in what would have been a great trap.

Next to bowl from the Pavilion was Suli Nisar who showed a lot of heart bowling to their big hitter no 3 who hit some massive 6s in his knock of 40 runs.

Maroof gave the batsman something different to think about and picked up a wicket

However the RNVR opener Charlie went on to match Hingston with an equally composed and classy Tony before eventually being run out by Manny with a direct hit on 119

John Shaw bowled magnificently late in the innings showing great control of his line and length finishing 6 overs with 1 wicket for 19 runs.

Unfortunately newcomer Tom Dalkins twisted his ankle while bowling and had to be helped to the boundary. However Samad stepped in and proceeded to clean up most of the tail before time ran out.

A draw a fitting result in the end between two equally matched teams in a game that produced many personal highlights and was played in a great spirit.

Match Report By Ciarán Walsh and Manny Nisar

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
5w 6b 2lb 
for 7 wickets
13
263		        
Nauman Nisar Caught  31
Ben Hingston Caught  112
Prathamesh Deshpande Caught  21
Andy Wright Caught  12
Sulaiman Nisar Not Out  52
A.N. Other Lbw  0
nasibullah Maroofkhel  
John Shaw Lbw  0
Joe Bishop  
Tom Dalkins  
A.N. Other  

R.N.V.R. CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Buckland12.005300.004.42
Bhanshali11.0064232.005.82
Tex8.0052317.336.50
Dale5.004100.008.20
Lobo8.0053226.506.63

R.N.V.R. CC Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
10nb 6w 3lb 
for 7 wickets
19
230 (39.0 overs)		     
T. Harman Bowled  2
I. Chrichton Run out  119
N. Lobo Caught  40
P. Dale Bowled  33
D. Clarkson Bowled  8
Yogesh Bowled  4
S. Ferguson Not Out  4
J. Hillman Lbw  0
T. Warnes Not Out  1
   
   

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
A.N. Other10.4251317.004.78
Joe Bishop3.001900.006.33
Prathamesh Deshpande9.0047147.005.22
Sulaiman Nisar5.003500.007.00
nasibullah Maroofkhel5.0033133.006.60
John Shaw6.0019119.003.17
Tom Dalkins1.202000.0015.00