Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI v OA's on Sun 15 Jun 2025 at 1pm
St Albans Cricket Club Lost

Match report Once again, we welcome the most well-liked team in the club to the home of cricket: the Sandpit Lane minefield. An initial pitch inspection confirmed it would be somewhat of a challenge to bat on, but hey: both teams get the same pitch and we had some serious guns in the shed. The opposition were OAs, seeking to claim vengeance upon us after we defeated them in a thrilling away match earlier in the season. The hot weather incited skipper/cricketing titan Nauman ‘Manny’ Nisar to opt to bowl first providing he won the toss. He went on to confidently lose said toss and the mighty Saints were put in to bat first. All this with the fact ringing in their ears that OAs had deployed a combination of their Saturday 1st and 2nd XI, thinking they were playing our Sunday 1XI, and so our openers entered the pitch.

Now, the previous night had seen some action on the Sunday 2s group chat. After an undisclosed number of shandies at Clarence Park, local village idiot Ciarán Walsh saw fit to crack some jokes about how he should open the batting today. These jovial comments were met with laughter and more good-natured cracks about the spectacle of seeing the perpetrator of “WembleyGate” go anywhere near the top order, let alone open. Chuckles were chuckled, giggles were giggled and chortles were chortled, as Walsh popped his phone back in his pocket and went on with his Brewpoint-soaked night.

Cue Walsh being ushered out to the crease at number 2 with still-recovering wrists hampering his already questionable batting ability, alongside resident Sunday gun Altaf ‘Daddy’ Hussein. Walsh started out uncharacteristically sensibly, for once not trying to hit every delivery to the leg side. He played some of the most sensational leaves you ever did see before trying to play one to the off side and seeing himself nick off and caught behind. Fair play though, they were rapid opening bowlers that he’s not used to facing, so it’s promising at his big old age to be batting at least somewhat sensibly.

Daddy found more success, mitigating the troubles of the minefield strip, finding the boundary several times and tying down an end to preserve his wicket. He would be trapped via LBW on 27, our team’s top scorer today. Tom ‘Googly Boy’ Rayden then approached, joined by Suleiman ‘Suli’ Nisar. Suli was kind and decided not to trouble the scorers, while Rayden batted with composure and his usual panache. Like Papa, he found the boundary with ease, but did eventually fall on 18 to a solid catch.

Next up: Prath ‘PK’ Khatavkar and Nadeem ‘Nads’ Arif. PK was circumspect, understanding we had lost some quick wickets and needed to play out the overs to be in with a chance of getting a defendable total. He showed respect to the good deliveries and supported his partners ably in their run calls. Umpire Walsh then decided to forget this was a Sunday friendly, opting to call a short run on his dear friend and teammate. “Ooooh look at me, I’m a qualified umpire and I know about short runs-“, shut up and get a life Walshy, the Women’s 1XI dropped you ages ago, grow up. He would then imperiously raise the finger to dismiss PK via stumping: a close call but a call that Walsh stands by. Nads was unfortunate, striking a lovely 4 and then booming another big shot into the hands of a fielder. PK and Nads departed on 10 and 4 respectively, allowing for Peter ‘Cover Drive Extraordinaire’ Melling and Ben ‘the WTC is overrated’ Hingston to take the stage.

Hingston did what Hingston does best, aside from bicep curls and deadlifts. He pumped the ball all over the gaff, scaring fielders and drawing murmurings of appreciation from his teammates. The fielding was good, however, seeing the majority of Hingston’s runs come from singles and doubles rather than the boundary. He was eventually bowled on 24, while partner Pete took the Suli approach, giving the scorers a break by only knocking a 4 and a 1, departing on 5. Sammad batted for a spell, to many whoops and good-natured jibes from his OAs teammates. He saw himself caught on 6, seeing the remainder of our innings seen out by Manny and Joe ‘Insert Chess Joke Here’ Bishop. Manny knocked 7 before being outfoxed and bowled out, while Bishop remained not out on nought after being told “no, you can’t run between the wickets diagonally’ (that’s right, I play chess).

With the somewhat low but defendable total of 131, we tucked into a delectable Tavah tea and resumed play, opening with the combined might of Padre and Sammad. Sammad’s pace proved challenging for the batters to score from, while Father found immediate reward, dismissing an opener for not very many. He went on to take another wicket, promptly followed by Sammad dismissing another batter who attempted to ramp him, unaware that Manny had just moved Papito to fly-slip, who was all too keen to take the catch with aplomb. The pair retired, seeing themselves replaced by PK and - yes, you are reading this right - Rayden.

PK found immediate movement, drawing compliments from our first-half keeper, Hingston, baffling the batters everywhere he went, being unfortunate not to take a wicket but certainly deserving one. Rayden found more success, shifting his field around in an attempt to calm down the rapidly-increasing run rate. He would go on to take a wicket with his self-professed “best googly in the club”, but the batters at this point were garnering an acceleration. Hardly the fault of our bowlers, who were bowling tidy spells, but a choke was required in order to eke out this game to have a chance of winning.

With this in mind, a bowling change was implemented, with Suli taking one end and Daddio finding his services called upon for the second time this innings. The pair bowled tidy spells, but spin bowling seemed to be to the liking of the OAs bats. Despite bowling some genuinely excellent deliveries, Suli found himself the victim of several big shots, the batters picking the field well and Rayden only just missing a worldie of a catch by a hair, despite an excellent jump. Paternal Figure restricted the rate somewhat better, but the bats were in form with their eye in. There was time enough for Bishop to come on to bowl an over and a bit, claiming a wicket that was more of a consolation prize for the team thanks to a firm hold from Suli, before the game did draw to a close in favour of OAs.

A loss, but a very fun game nonetheless. Great chat in the field and OAs were good banter, engaging in playful repartee with our beloved Saints. Fun was had all around, seeing bowling-umpire Walsh open the batting, keeping-specialist Rayden have a bowl and umpires call potentially the only short run in Sunday friendly cricket this weekend (seriously, get a life Walsh). Special mention to Altaf, who saw fit to settle the “Man of the Match” debate before anyone could argue: top scorer, top wicket taker, took a catch, what more can you ask for? Onwards we march, our next fixture seeing us return to Clarence Park to escape the Sandpit Lane bomb shelter. The annual Phil Milton Memorial Match looms, and we can’t wait!

Fineable Moments:

Walsh for a number of things, namely: A) getting drunk and swindling his way into opening the batting, B) calling a short run on PK in friendly Sunday cricket and C) as always, poor chat in the field seeing him at one point tell PK “I’ll warm YOUR mouth up in a minute” (don’t ask for context, it won’t help).

Manny for allowing himself to be bamboozled into letting Walsh anywhere near the top order and then “forgetting to bowl him.”

Rayden for refusing to repeat his last bowling performance with another 4fer.

Whoever was responsible for the miscommunication regarding which SACC Sunday team we are, leading to OAs deploying a team comprised of their Saturday 1XI and 2XI.

Match report by Ciaran Walsh

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
131		        
Md Altaf Husain Lbw  27
Ciarán Walsh Caught  0
Thomas Rayden Caught  18
Sulaiman Nisar Caught  0
Prath Khatavkar Stumped  10
Nadeem Arif Caught  4
Peter Melling Caught  5
Ben Hingston Bowled  24
A.N. Other Caught  6
Nauman Nisar Bowled  7
Joe Bishop Not Out  0

OA's Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

OA's Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 5 wickets
0
135 (23.1 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

St Albans Cricket Club Sunday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
A.N. Other7.0320120.002.86
Md Altaf Husain5.0125212.505.00
Prath Khatavkar3.001600.005.33
Thomas Rayden4.0035135.008.75
Sulaiman Nisar3.102600.008.21
Joe Bishop1.00717.007.00