Scorecard

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 3rd XI v Stevenage VI on Sat 14 May 2011 at 1.00pm
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 2 wickets

Match report Northwood Town IIIs lost the toss (surprise, surprise!) and were asked to field first on a day where all except the weather gods expected rain.

On a flat track, Town showed one of its finest bowling displays – probably only bowling 20 bad balls in total in its 47 overs. The Katira brothers (34/2 off 10 for Tarang Katira and 51/1 off 18 for Meeth Katira) put on a particularly good show up-front, supported by some fine catching. Mark McInnes took two good catches at mid-off on his league debut, while Havan Patel took a sharp chance behind the stumps down the legside.

The follow-on bowling was good too, with John Bentvelzen extracting some turn and beating the bat on several occasions. Mitesh ‘the ball magnet’ Parmar had yet another catch come his way – as he completed a smart caught and bowled. Chariman Rawson-Jones bowled with guile, using quicker and slower balls to cunning advantage.

For a day when the fielding and catching blew hot and cold, Parmar, McInnes and Bentvelzen particularly stood out for their work in the field.

The most interesting moment of the inning may yet have been when Stevenage’s injured-with-a-runner Court inner-edged one to fine leg, both sets of runners comfortably made their ground, but an accurate throw from Meeth Katira caught Court short of his ground, as Havan Patel (having warned the batsman in the prior over), this time whipped the bails off. Drinks were called early as the batsman threw his bat in anguish and refused to leave the field. To Stevenage’s credit, their captain asked Court to leave the ground immediately and take no further part in the game.

Having almost chased down 246 the prior week with a similar batting line-up, at tea, Town felt confident about chasing down the 183-run target set by Stevenage – and in the end they did – with almost seven overs still in the bag.

Rajul Patel (37, 6x4s) and Havan Patel (49, 11x4s) provided Town with yet another strong start, in a 63-run stand, which was characterised by the former’s now famous coolness, and the latter’s intelligent aggression. Havan Patel particularly used his trademark wristy flick through square leg to very good advantage.

As Havan Patel fell to a beautiful outswinger, Rajul Patel very smoothly transitioned his role from the defender to the aggressor, allowing Mitesh Parmar (35, 5x4s) time to get his eye in, who continued his all-round contribution to the game. The pair put on 63, before Rajul Patel was finally dismissed.

Having been 126 for 1 after 21 overs, running very smoothly at 6-an-over, Town realised that they had almost forgotten their customary Northwood Town collapse (which somehow seems to have been passively inherited even by the new members of the club!) – and somehow lost a further 7 wickets for 56 runs. However, a not-so-sensible cameo from Tarang Katira (15) and a much more sensible one from Chairman Rawson-Jones (9 not out), ensured that despite the nail-biting finish, Town crossed the line in the end.

Some good celebrations followed Northwood Town III’s first-ever league victory, including civilised pitch invasion from Town’s players (but thankfully for the rest of the team no Ganguly-esque shirt swinging from the captain), lots of handshakes, hugs, pictures (much to the opposition’s amusement) and tweeting (thanks Gerry Pimm!), and beer drinking, of course.

Well done team – first of many wins to come this season, no doubt.

Stevenage VI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
182 (0.0 overs)		     
S. Wood ct  McInnes b. T. Katira 16
C. Welch ct  H. Patel b. M. Katira 11
W. Sheperd ct  McInnes b. T. Katira 15
B. Dingley Not Out  80
C. Court run out  M. Katira / H. Patel 6
C. Helley ct  & b. M. Parmar 8
A. Kinney run out  Rawson-Jones 34
M. Slater Not Out  0
   
   
   

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Tarang K. Katira10.0234217.003.40
Meeth Katira18.0451151.002.83
Mitesh Parmar4.0027127.006.75
Jonathan Bentvelzen5.011700.003.40
Ben Rawson-Jones10.004200.004.20

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
186		        
Havan Patel b  Simmons 49 1 1
Rajul Patel ct  Slater 37
Mitesh Parmar b  Bailey 35 1
Patrick Rooke b  Welch 4
Tarang K. Katira ct  Welch 15
Meeth Katira b  Welch 5 1
Vipul Patel ct  Welch 6
Ben Rawson-Jones Not Out  9 1
Jonathan Bentvelzen b  Bailey 0
Humay Jairazbhoy Not Out  0
Mark McInnes   2

Stevenage VI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
O. Bailey10.0224212.002.40
L . Hulley7.004500.006.43
A. Kinney2.002500.0012.50
M. Slater5.0124124.004.80
C. Welch7.112546.253.49
P. Simmonds5.0036136.007.20