Scorecard

Aldenham CC v Northwood Town Cricket Club Sunday XI on Sun 28 May 2023 at 1:00pm
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won MOTM:Harry 4 wickets and Sajid with 65 runs

Match report After finding out about SKLP pulling out on Saturday evening, Town were for half an hour, left without a game until the miracle that is Jesant Halai worked hard to put out a call out for a game and arranging a game in the last minute with Aldenham CC. A big thank you to Jesant for having been able to arrange this game on a Saturday evening and allowing us to have a game!

After all the drama of Town almost not having a game to now having an away game at Aldenham, Town turned up to a quaint, slightly small ground away at Aldenham in a picturesque part of Hertfordshire. The hot sun and dry weather over the last week and a half meant the pitch at Aldenham was quite dry but the centre of the pitch was damp with the away side having watered it Saturday evening, making for an interesting playing surface. Tossing up with the skipper, Town lost the toss and were put in to bat with the opposition skipper kindly allowing us to bat first.

Being in bad form, Skipper Keeran headed out to open the batting alongside Ravi, both looking to put on a good start for Town. The aforementioned damp centre of the pitch made batting tricky for the first few overs as the ball clung to the surface slightly so any delivery short of a good length became tricky to judge. Early on, both Keeran and Ravi faced difficulties with this and this was demonstrated as Ravi unfortunately gloved a short delivery to the keeper off the cuff of his gloves, a harsh dismissal with the sticky pitch making it tricky to judge effectively. Replacing Ravi and coming in at 3 was Burty who came in and after taking a few deliveries, got off the mark. However, both batsmen were having trouble adjusting to the sticky wicket and Burty soon fell trying to pull a short delivery which clung to the surface and came at the stumps slower than expected, toppling the bails and dismissing Burty. Coming in place of Burty and partnering with Keeran was Sajid as the score came to 24 - 2 in the 10th over, not a great start from Town. Both Keeran and Sajid played patiently in the heat as they waited for the pitch to dry out and the bowlers to tire, reaching the first drinks break (one drinks break at 15 and another at 30 overs due to the heat) for a score of 54 - 2 after 15 overs. Quick singles, a few good shots and some hard running (especially with Keeran pushing Sajid to run harder), Town started to rebuild as Keeran and Sajid put together a 100 run partnership, rebulding the Town's innings to 125 - 2 off 24 overs whilst both batsmen reached their half centuries. The introduction of Aldenham's leg spinner D.Sanghavi saw the dismissal of Keeran as he gloved one turning away from him to the keeper and ended his innings with 58 from 57 deliveries< leaving Harry to bat with Sajid. After some good running and a couple of good shots, Harry was soon dismissed for a catch and the retirement of Sajid on 65* saw Ajay and Ibbad both being introduced to the crease. Ajay looked to utilise the crease to sweep the leg spinner and after a couple of consecutive attemps, soon was dismissed for an LBW whilst Ibbad played a few good shots, including 2 boundaries. However, he was soon bowled trying to accelerate the run-rate to give Town a 200+ score. The dismissal of Ajay and Ibbad introduced Saad and Aarya who both played well, Aarya scoring a fantastic boundary to frustrate the Aldenham bowlers and Saad playing some fantastic cover drives, scoring 26 runs and carrying town to a very positive 218 score.

After the opening few overs where Town had thought they would be in trouble, they were very pleased with where they had ended up. A quick tea break for Town and we were ready to go out and defend our high 219 target against Aldenham.

Opening the bowling for Town was Abhay and Ibbad with Abhay taking the first over. After a few great deliveries, Abhay bowled a beauty of a delivery to knock into the stumps of the opening batsman, providing Town with the started they wanted. Ibbad opened the bowling on the other end and soon took a wicket with batsman number three coming in and then hitting one straight up for a great catch by Abhay for Town's second wicket. Both Ibbad and Abhay continued to bowl well in their spell but the batsmen in were quite patient and since the pitch had dried out a lot more, they were able to more easily play their shots, waiting for slightly under or over pitched deliveries to play their shots. Looking to make a change and slow down the run rate and attack further, Town changed up the bowling with Stanley replacing Abhay. Stanley's injection of pace and line kicked in and within 2 overs managed to take a great wicket with a fantastic catch from harry to dismiss batsman number 4 for Aldenham. After the 3rd wicket, runs started to creep up as the opposition team played a 50 run partnership, rebuilding and scoring their runs and Town's introduction for Saad hadn't reaped rewards with his spin imediatley. The increasing runs and with wickets in hand, Aldenham were fighting back to a winning position, so much so that Keeran introduced Harry Shaw (or more commonly known as Harry Patel) to the bowling crease. Harry started off well, conceding only 6 runs in his first two overs before taking his first wicket and getting Majid caught on 54, a key breakthrough for Town. Harry's looping spin and great lengths continued to cause trouble for Aldenham with Harry taking a further 3 wickets, including a great stumping from Ajay and really putting a stop to the Aldenham remontada. With one wicket left and only 60 odd runs to win, Town were pressed to take that final wicket and who better to finish the game off than Aarya Puwar! Having played a Pinner colts game last week and finishing the game off with a 6 then, it was only fitting for Aarya to finish the game with a wicket this game, getting the final batsman caught out and ending any chance of a Aldenham win and maintaining Town's win streak, now at 4 in a row!

Great performance from the boys but a special mention to Aarya for that wicket and his batting efforts, Harry for his 4 wickets and great catch and finally, the 100 run partnership between Keeran and Sajid, steadying the innings and allowing Town to reach a 200+ score.

Well played boys and onto the next game!

Northwood Town Cricket Club Sunday XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
5nb 14w 10b 3lb 
for 8 wickets
32
218		        
Ravi Ramawat ct J. Bazeley 0 4 0
Keeran Sudagaran ct U. Khaliq 58 57 10 101.75
Andy Burt b D. Sanghvi 3 14 21.43 1
Sajid Shafique Malik Retired Not Out  65 53 11 122.64
Harry Shaw ct K. Chaiwala 10 1 1
Ajay Lal lbw D. Sanghvi 0 2 0
Ibbad Kayani b D. Sanghvi 11 9 122.22
Saad Kayani Not Out  26 20 2 130.0
Aarya Puwar b J. Bazeley 4 3 1 133.33
Stanley Babukutty Not Out  7 6 1 116.67
Abhay Joshi  

Aldenham CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J. Bazeley8.041929.502.37
U. Khalique7.0023123.003.29
G. Kashyap4.002400.006.00
K. Chaiwala7.0047147.006.71
R. Doughty4.004200.0010.50
D. Sanghvi8.012939.673.63
M. Fadra2.011900.009.50

Aldenham CC Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 15w 8b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
26
157 (28.0 overs)		     
S.Letts b Abhay 0 4 0
Majid ct Harry 54 64 7 2 84.38
A.Tyrer ct Ibbad 4 5 1 80.0
J.Bazeley ct Stanley 20 24 4 83.33
Gautam lbw Harry 21 31 3 67.74
Abbaid ct Saad 5 11 45.45
M.Bazeley b Harry 2 5 40.0
K.Chaiwala Not Out  4 9 44.44
D.Sanghvi b Saad 0 1 0
I.Haque st Stumped by Ajay, Bowled by Harry 20 7 5 285.71
R.Doughty ct Aarya 0 5 0

Northwood Town Cricket Club Sunday XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Abhay Joshi4.0015115.003.75
Ibbad Kayani6.0125125.004.17
Stanley Babukutty4.0028128.007.00
Saad Kayani7.0043221.506.14
Harry Shaw6.003548.755.83
Aarya Puwar1.00212.002.00