Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI v Ware CC 2nd XI on Sat 23 May 2026 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 4 wickets

Match report On a very sunny and hot day, Saints 5XI won the toss and decided to bowl first — not an easy decision in those conditions, but it proved to be the right one.

Ware CC 2nd XI were bowled out for 217 in 39.5 overs. After early breakthroughs from James Witty and James Lancaster, Ware recovered well thanks to a brilliant 116 from Matt Norman. However, the bowlers kept fighting hard and picked up wickets regularly throughout the innings. Ubed Talha was the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets, while Vishwa Sirwar claimed 2 important wickets. Adam Khel, Nadeem Arif, James Witty and James Lancaster all chipped in as part of a real team effort.

Our fielding, though, was disappointing again. Too many dropped chances and misfields allowed Ware to recover from a poor start and post a competitive total of 217.

When a team scores over 200 at SL, they often think it’s a match-winning score and sometimes take things a bit easy — but 90% of the time at SL, that’s not the case, and Saints 5XI took full advantage.

In reply, the chase was built on strong partnerships throughout the innings. Even though it was a slow start after the first 10 overs, Saints knew that as long as we batted the full 40 overs, the game would be ours and we could always catch up with the run rate.

Andrew Melling anchored the innings brilliantly with a classy 46, while Andrew Knill-Jones played positively for his 40. Praveen Kumar and Nasibullah Maroofkhel both played important attacking knocks to keep the scoreboard moving.

With the game still in the balance, Imran Ahmed and Adam Khel kept their composure superbly and guided the team home with an unbeaten partnership, both finishing on 18 not out to secure a 4-wicket win.

Another huge win for St Albans Cricket Club 5XI as we beat Ware CC 2nd XI to keep the momentum going. Another fantastic team performance with everyone contributing in different ways. The energy, attitude and teamwork were outstanding once again — and that’s the key behind the success this season.

Onto the next one.

Ware CC 2nd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 6w 5b  
for 10 wickets
15
217 (39.5 overs)		     
Tom Parker ct  A Knill-Jones b J Witty 4
Graeme Unwin b  J Witty 7
Dom Compton ct  A Melling b J Lancaster 7
Alex Smith b  A Khel 36
Matt Norman b  U Talha 116
Andy Milton b  N Arif 0
Imran Khan ct  A Knill-Jones b V Sirwar 16
David Green ct  U Talha b V Sirwar 3
Jamie Don ct  N Maroofkhel b U Talha 7
John Story b  U Talha 5
Steve Risby Not Out  1

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Witty8.0239219.504.88
James Lancaster8.0040140.005.00
Imran Ahmed2.001800.009.00
Ubed Talha3.5032310.678.35
Adam Khel8.0031131.003.87
Nadeem Arif2.0020120.0010.00
Vishwa Sirwar8.0032216.004.00

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 12w 6b 1lb 
for 6 wickets
21
218		        
Andrew Melling ct  Unsure b G Unwin 46 75 6 61.33 1
Praveen Kumar ct  Unsure b A Smith 29 37 4 1 78.38
Andrew Knill-Jones ct  Unsure b J Don 40 37 6 108.11 2
Nasibullah Maroofkhel ct  I Khan b G Unwin 30 28 3 107.14 1
Vishwa Sirwar lbw  M Norman 8 12 66.67
Ubed Talha run out  (Unsure) 8 6 1 133.33 1
Imran Ahmed Not Out  18 17 2 1 105.88
Adam Khel Not Out  18 16 3 112.50
James Witty  
James Lancaster  
Nadeem Arif  

Ware CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Imran Khan8.022300.002.88
Steve Risby6.002300.003.83
Alex Smith5.4046146.008.12
Graeme Unwin8.0056228.007.00
Jamie Don7.0050150.007.14
Matt Norman3.0013113.004.33