Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI v Old Minchendenians CC 2nd XI on Sat 27 Jun 2026 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 8 runs

Match report As the league approached it's halfway stage the St Albans 4th XI returned to Sandpit Lane in search of a third win in a row that would cement their place in the middle of the Div 9 East league. Today's opponents were Old Minchendenians, a team who found themselves one place below the Saints in the table.

The day started with the usual selection drama, Hingston poached by the 3s, and didn't improve when Roberts forgot his whites and had to spend 10 minutes looking for a missing ear ring. These are the battles of top level sportsmen. You don't get this in the 1s.

After much debate about whether to bat or bowl first Davey lost the toss and the 4s were invited to field in the sweltering June heat.

4s debutant Roy-Choudry opened along with stalwart Deshpande. Roy-Choudry bowled with searing pace, some of the fastest seen by the 4s in recent memories, he was unfortunate not to find a wicket in his spell at the top of the innings and was met by some fine Pies drilled batting. Tennis balls, Spain, delightful cover drives. At the other end Deshpande bowled with his usual devious swing, and soon dismissed one of the openers caught by Ethan.

The first change brought Walker and Witty into the attack, both bowled well and restricted the run rate, keeping the Old Mins in check at the first drinks. The second change saw the slower bowlers introduced, Talha and Saunders combining to produce the best bowling of the day. They built pressure well and were rewarded with wickets, Talha picking up 2 and Saunders 1, including the pick of the Old Min's batsmen just after making 50. Throughout the rate was restricted even further and Old Mins found themselves being pegged back to 3 an over at the second drinks.

Davey brought himself on after drinks and found himself the most expensive of the bowlers, with the majority of the runs coming behind square off the edge of the bat. He did pick up 2 wickets in his spell. Walker came back on and picked up a very nice 3 wickets including Roberts' second stumping of the day. Old Mins restricted to 141 off of 40 overs. A great start to the day for the 4s, with all bowlers acquitting themselves well.

After a short break Roberts and Thomas opened up the chase for the 4s. The commentary of what follows will not be positive, but it is worth noting that throughout this innings Roberts dug in, worked hard and brought up a much deserved 50 half way through the chase, before getting out the ball after. Well done Olly.

The rest of the 4s faired less well and will need to reflect on their innings if the team is to avoid relegation this season. Nine other batsmen came and went without materially troubling the scorers, extras the second top scorer on 21. The 4s collapsing from a commanding 70-1 to 134 all out. The dismissals were poor, a mixture of bad shots, weak judgement or just lack of patience. Multiple batsmen bowled going for booming drives, 3 falling to a pie chucker who's pace wouldn't have registered on a speedo. Not good enough.

In the end the 4s lost by 7 runs, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. This was by far the worst of the losses this season, and we will need to improve our batting significantly if we want to be a Division 9 team next year.


Old Minchendenians CC 2nd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 9w 4b 1lb 
for 9 wickets
15
141 (40.0 overs)		     
Lohit Seera ct  Unsure b A Saunders 52 88 5 59.09
Shashank Goyal ct  E Witty b P Deshpande 7 26 1 26.92
Prasad Pillalamarri b  U Talha 18 43 2 41.86
Shaakir Rafique st  O Roberts b U Talha 3 19 15.79
Umesh Agarwal b  S Davey 14 23 2 60.87
Prakash Pandey ct  Unsure b A Walker 9 13 1 69.23
Pranav Narayanam lbw  A Walker 7 10 70.0
Sujan Depala ct  S Davey b S Davey 10 11 1 90.91
Ankith Kandlakunta Not Out  6 6 100
Srinivasa Narayanam st  O Roberts b A Walker 0 2 0
Kiran Gundala  

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Abhishek Roy-Choudhury4.002000.005.00
Prathamesh Deshpande5.0112112.002.40
Ethan Witty4.012100.005.25
Andrew Walker7.012237.333.14
Andy Saunders8.0113113.001.62
Ubed Talha8.031829.002.25
Sam Davey4.0030215.007.50

St Albans Cricket Club 4XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 12w 6b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
21
134		        
Olly Roberts ct  S Depala b S Depala 50 82 6 60.98 2
Hugo Thomas b  P Pillalamarri 8 20 2 40.0
Ethan Witty b  P Narayanam 12 31 1 38.71 1
Moksudul Islam b  P Narayanam 0 3 0
Peter Melling b  P Narayanam 8 24 33.33
Prathamesh Deshpande b  S Depala 0 6 0
Sam Davey ct  S Depala b P Narayanam 6 4 1 150.0 1
Ubed Talha b  U Agarwal 12 23 1 52.17
Andrew Walker ct  Unsure b S Depala 8 15 1 53.33
Abhishek Roy-Choudhury ct  Unsure b U Agarwal 8 12 2 66.67
Andy Saunders Not Out  1 1 100

Old Minchendenians CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Prakash Pandey6.031500.002.50
Srinivasa Narayanam2.001200.006.00
Prasad Pillalamarri6.0016116.002.67
Kiran Gundala6.013500.005.83
Pranav Narayanam8.012546.253.12
Sujan Depala8.002137.002.63
Umesh Agarwal0.30221.004.00