Scorecard

Sawbridgeworth V v Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 3rd XI on Sat 21 May 2011 at 1.30pm
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 7 wickets

Match report Northwood Town III finally won the toss – and having chased well twice, Town bullishly decided to chase again against a team ranked number one in their division.

Town had a couple of early setbacks with one of their players pulling out at the very last minute, and with one of the opposition’s opening batsman deciding to attack Town’s Tarang Katira (50/2 off 8) early on. However, two stellar bowling performances backed by some spectacular fielding restricted the opposition to 191, all out, in 45 overs, on a ground that was not much bigger than a football field.

Opening the bowling from one end, Town’s Mitesh Parmar (39/2 off 17) seamlessly filled the “bowling machine” shoes in the absence of Meeth Katira. Bowling stump-to-stump, the opposition found Parmar nearly impossible to put away.

At the other end, leg-spinner-turned-pacer (or vice-versa according to him), Paddy Rooke (48/4 off 13) nicely took up the third seamer’s spot. Having bowled so well throughout the game and picking up 4 of the top 5 opposition batsmen, he may never forgive the captain for sneaking out the last two wickets from the other end. Debutant Sampat and Bentvelzen were the other wicket-takers.

To say that Mark McInnes - brilliant behind the stumps - and Rajul Patel - two close direct hits and a good catch - led the fielding effort would be doing a disservice to the spectacular performance all-round. The best anecdotal evidence of the fact that the 10 men fielded like there were 12 on the field came when Bentvelzen came on to bowl and was asked “Where would you like the eighth fielder?” – his response was “It doesn’t matter. Stick him anywhere. I’m covered”.

Chasing 192 against the highest-ranked team in the division, Town got off to a flyer, with Rajul Patel (21, 1x6, 3x4s) yet again playing Mr. Reliable. He was supported by cameos from Sam Brenton and Paddy Rooke – but at 51 for 3 in its 11th over, there were fears that Town’s inning could well go off the rails.

What ensued was one of the most mature chases that the skipper has seen at this level – Katira (77 not out, 2x6s, 9x4s) and Parmar (56 not out, 8x4s) participated in an unbeaten stand of 142, playing completely risk-free cricket – ranging from regularly blocking and leaving the better deliveries – to hitting the full-tosses into the ditches and the fields surrounding the field.

Much like the Katira-Rooke stand a fortnight ago, the two complemented each other perfectly, as Parmar first kept the strike while Katira’s nerves calmed. Katira then switched into the aggressor role once he settled in, and Parmar was content taking the singles and rotating the strike. Towards the end, as Katira tired, Parmar took on the aggressor role as Town cruised home with 7 wickets and over 5 overs to spare.

The stand-out memories include the team’s brilliant fielding performance, the Rooke-Energiser Bunny bowling partnership and a very mature run chase. Rock on, Town – third in the division now – and only two spots below our desired position. Well done on the good start to the season – more of the same going forward. Remember - confidence, not arrogance.

Sawbridgeworth V Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
191 (0.0 overs)		     
Fisher ct  R. Patel b. Rooke 70
Marsh b  M. Parmar 9
Freeman b  Rooke 22
Hesslop lbw  Rooke 4
A. Clark Jr. b  Rooke 1
Foantain b  M . Parmar 5
A. Clark ct  McInnes b. Sampat 2
Vijay lbw  Bentvelzen 20
Boxall lbw  T. Katira 9
Noonan Not Out  28
Billings b  T. Katira 0

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Tarang K. Katira8.0050225.006.25
Mitesh Parmar17.0439219.502.29
Patrick Rooke13.0548412.003.69
Mihir Sampat4.0025125.006.25
Jonathan Bentvelzen3.0020120.006.67

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 3 wickets
0
193		        
Rajul Patel b  Noonan 21 1
Sam Brenton b  Hesslop 8
Mitesh Parmar Not Out  56
Patrick Rooke b  Noonan 13
Tarang K. Katira Not Out  77
Amit Parmar  
Jonathan Bentvelzen  
Vishal Gulhane  
Mihir Sampat  
Mark McInnes   1
Ravi Ramawat  

Sawbridgeworth V Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Noonan9.0031215.503.44
Hesslop7.0133133.004.71
Freeman7.003200.004.57
Billings11.005100.004.64
A. Clark Jr.5.054000.008.00