Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club Invitational XI v 5X1 on Sun 19 Apr 2026 at 12.30
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 12 runs

Match report Four words, fifteen letters, say them and I’m yours:

Cricket is so back.

With the season looming and availability already looking very strong, we decided to conduct an internal friendly match, pitting friends against each other and allowing everyone an opportunity to shake off the dust after a winter of rest. We fielded two teams of 12+ players each thanks to the aforementioned great availability, and a sporting decision that batters retire on 40 to allow everyone a chance with the bat.Andy Saunders and Imran Ahmed led the Invitational XI and the 5XI respectively, with the toss seeing Ahmed take his side to bat first.

The 5s deployed a strong opening pair in everyone’s favourite creatine enthusiast, Ben ‘Biceps’ Hingston, and Altaf ‘Daddy’ Hussein. Hingston had spent most of the Thursday net session trying to convince everyone that he was “going to play far more defensively this year, new season new me.” He then proceeded to bludgeon a number of boundaries with vicious aggression, presumably in an effort to forget he’ll soon be supporting a Championship team. Altaf remained more contemplative, picking his shots carefully and striking the bad balls when they came. The Invitational had elected to open the bowling with the combined might of Prath ‘PK’ Khatavkar and Tim ‘Winners’ Winfield: the perfect combination of raw speed and sublime swinging. Their bowling’s not bad either. After a blistering opening spell, Hingston remained undefeated, while Altaf found himself the most recent victim of the Sandpit Swinger, departing for a thoughtful 15. Youngster Finn Newton stepped up to replace him, but shortly after fell on 5 to become PK’s newest scalp.

Skipper Saunders and Daniel Leal stepped up to replace PK and Winners, and not long after Hingston would retire on a well-made 42* (a genuinely sensational innings), with the option to return should enough wickets fall. Saunders clearly missed the sight of Ben’s biceps/bazookas, and sought to dismiss as many batters as he could as quickly as he could, in an effort to return Ben to the field of play ASAP so we could all collectively fawn and drool over his arms. Saunders would go on to notch an impressive 4 wicket haul, claiming the scalps of Kara ‘Best Vijender in the Club’ Vijender, Nasibullah ‘Maroof’ Maroofkhel (both for nought each), enemy skipper Imran and young talent Jacob Broome (each for 1). Leal ably supported Saunders from the other end, bowling some brilliantly tight lines and giving virtually nothing away, claiming a wicket for himself in the form of newcomer Tawhid Ahmed. Amidst this, everyone was positively salivating at the prospect of a pre-season 5fer for Saunders. The opportunity presented itself: new bat Prathamesh ‘PD’ Deshpande, who looked in fine form, misjudged one of Saunders’ deliveries and skied it up into the air above and past the bowler’s head. Mid off Ciarán Walsh and mid on PK each swarmed in to take the catch, with Walsh standing down after a confident yell of ‘PK’s’ earmarked the catch for our opening pace merchant. PK perfectly positions himself under the ball, adjusts his feet, it falls into his hands - he pushes it back up into the air, takes a few more swipes at it and watches it hit the deck in front of him. Fielders fell to their knees, the crowd gasped with horror and all eyes swivelled to Saunders. A friendly smile covered his face, a few good-natured jibes came out of his mouth, but the fire behind the eyes was evident for all to see. PK, you might want to check the club website mate, decent chance your account’s been terminated.

Anyways, enough about Saunders potentially putting a hit out on PK, back to business. Saunders and Leal stepped down, allowing for Ted Lasso impersonator Praveen Kumar and specialist bowling-umpire Walsh to try their hand with the ball. PD still stood tall, joined on the battlefield by Uvanesh Paramesh. Both bats looked in fine touch, PD well on his way to retirement and Uvanesh looking to catch up in a hurry. A loose start from Walsh didn’t help matters, the batters only too eager to capitalise on the bad bowling. Praveen thankfully kept things tighter, for which PD rewarded him with a ball to the nose. Hardly PD’s fault, and no serious injury, with Praveen leaving the field for a couple of overs before returning to complete his spell. Skipper Saunders looked around in the meantime and said “who wants to complete Praveen’s over?”, before remembering his potential 5fer was suddenly back on the table, declaring “I DO!” Sadly, despite some tight bowling, the over was completed without the 5th wicket. Walsh started to tighten up, appealing for what he assessed to be a plumb LBW on PD, but had this turned down by the umpire. The next ball saw him appeal for a - ahem - ‘less than plumb’ one, which the umpire gave. Uvanesh, the offending batter, looked on in disbelief, as did the keeper, mid on and mid off, highlighting a perhaps ‘less than sensible’ LBW shout. Ah well, one for my stats. Uvanesh departed on a blistering 28, replaced by the first of the Witties: James.

Bowling-wise, the final 10 overs were see out by everyone’s favourite Doctor (after David Tennant), Michael Nathan, joined by club stalwart Ashish ‘Ash’ Dean. James and PD held the line well against this onslaught, James having his ear chewed off by a very talkative Walsh from the covers. He defended the first few from Ash, but then heard Walsh say “Jesus wept James, you’re so boring, have a swing mate.” He duly tried to hit the next delivery into another postcode, missing it by a hair. Walsh, understanding how much he had James in his pocket, rubbed his hands with glee and repeated the statement a few overs later, eliciting the same result but this time with the ball crashing into the stumps to dismiss James for 4. The better Witty, Freya, then approached, played a brilliant drive, but fell to Ash, departing for 2.

The remaining overs were seen out by a reintroduced Hingston and PD, the former eventually reaching the 50 milestone before deciding he doesn’t like PD. In an attempt to avenge Praveen’s nose, Hingston facilitated the run out of PD, the poor man finishing the day on 46.

Tea came and went, with Walsh attempting to convince everyone to let him play walk-on songs, but being rightfully ignored. Thus, fielding extraordinaire Andy Wright and Ash journeyed onto the pitch to face the opening bowling spell of Uvanesh and James. After cementing his title as ‘a hologram in the field’, Wrighty was looking to make a name for himself with the bat. Uvanesh soon put paid to this notion, dismissing Wrighty for 4. Ash stuck around far longer, eventually notching his 40* and retiring. PK was next up, hoping to prove that all his hours with Pies over the winter hadn’t been in vain. He duly did so, going on to notch his own 40* and joining Ash in retirement. Great knocks from both Ash and PK; maybe Pies has some fielding drills to go through for next winter PK?

Newcomer Waseem then stepped up to bat, joined by the good doctor. Unfortunately, both lads fell quickly, departing for a pair of ducks in the face of good bowling from Imran’s ability to turn the ball on glass and PD’s banana-shaped deliveries. Hugo and Praveen stepped up to steady the ship, but couldn’t find their usual traction, being dismissed for 3 each by Broome and Imran respectively. Leal managed to give the Invitationals some hope, tacking on a useful 19, but was sadly trapped LBW by Maroof. The Sandpit Swinger then gave us even further hope, putting us back in the game with a sensational 39*, dispatching the ball all over the place and leaving onlookers breathless and hot under the collar, but his partners were dropping with alarming regularity.

Things were looking dire for the batting side, but rest easy: the Wembley Boys are still in the shed. Walsh was first up, swaggering on to the pitch, advising all drivers to move their cars lest they find the ball going through their windscreen. He faced his first delivery from Kara (who had been bowling up a storm despite picking up a wrist injury), and somehow, we assume mistakenly, dabbed it through the slips to get off the mark for the feistiest single known to cricket, outside of Walsh himself. Walsh felt good: he was off the mark, which was surprising enough, and felt ready to change his batting reputation. He turned to see the next delivery was being bowled by Sunday 2XI opener Altaf, and these hopes swiftly fell away. Keeper Hingston pleaded with Altaf to spare Walsh for at least one ball, but Daddy Altaf said “there are no friends in cricket,” sending Walsh’s stumps careering back to Clarence Park.

Saunders then stepped up to try his hand, angry enough that Arsenal had just equalised VS City. This fury (definitely nothing to do with a certain dropped 5fer) was shown in a massive shot down the ground for a feisty single of his own, before Altaf dismissed him too. Saunders came off the pitch scowling, but that playful grin loved by all returned to his face upon hearing Arsenal had conceded again.

The final portion of the game was seen out by a reintroduced PK and Ash, the two of them unable to meet the ever-increasing RRR, ending on 46* and 42* respectively. A rousing victory for the 5XI and a defeat for the Invitationals, but heartening performances and good-natured banter had by all. Availability as good as this is rare at club level cricket, particularly when said availability yields genuinely competitive standards of teams as today’s. Overall, a fun day with high-quality cricket and humorous moments of fielding ineptitude, which will be covered in the fineable moments below.


Fineable Moments:

PK for shelling a regulation catch to deny Saunders his 5fer.

Andy Wright for booting a stationary ball over the boundary before dropping another regulation catch two balls later, allowing Hingston to keep doing Hingston things with the bat.

PD for trying to kill Praveen.

Walsh for bringing a crate of 18 beers and going home with 17 of them, as he forgot the teams today were comprised of drivers, non-drinkers and junior members.

The Invitational’s top order for each taking 10 minutes to get padded up after the wicket had fallen that should have ushered them to the pitch.

5X1 Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
194 (40.0 overs)		     
Ben Hingston Not Out  51
MD Altaf Hussain ct  T. Winfield 15
Finn Newton b  P. Khatavkar 5
Kara Vijender b  A. Saunders 0
M.Maroofkhel lbw  A.Saunders 0
T. Ahmed ct  D. Leal 0
P. Deshpande Run out  46
Imran Ahmed lbw  A.Saunders 1
Jacob Broome b  A.Saunders 1
Uvanesh Paramesh lbw  C.Walsh 28
James Witty b  A.Dean 2

St Albans Cricket Club Invitational XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Prath Khatavkar5.0027127.005.40
Tim Winfield5.0040140.008.00
Andy Saunders5.02942.251.80
Praveen Kumar5.012500.005.00
Ciarán Walsh5.0027127.005.40
Ashish Dean5.001033.332.00
Michael Nathan5.002800.005.60
Daniel Leal5.0021121.004.20

St Albans Cricket Club Invitational XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
182		        
Andy Wright ct  U.Paramesh 4
Ashish Dean Not Out  42
Prath Khatavkar Not Out  46
Waseem Malik b  I.Ahmed 0
Michael Nathan ct  P.Deshpande 0
Hugo Thomas b  J.Broome 3
Praveen Kumar lbw  I.Ahmed 3
Daniel Leal lbw  Maroofkhel 19
Tim Winfield Not Out  39
Ciarán Walsh b  A. Hussain 1
Andy Saunders b  A. Hussain 1

5X1 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Uvamesh Paramesh5.0026126.005.20
James Witty5.002800.005.60
Freya Witty5.003100.006.20
Jacob Broome5.0121121.004.20
Imran Ahmed5.01623.001.20
Prathamesh Deshpande5.0119119.003.80
MD Altaf Hussain5.021326.502.60
Kara Vijender2.001900.009.50
Nasibullah Maroofkhel2.00919.004.50
Tawid Ahmed1.001000.0010.00