Scorecard

Watton at Stone II v Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI on Sat 23 Jun 2012 at 1.00pm
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 2 wickets

Match report Northwood Town picked up their first win in three games as they enjoyed a crucial 2 wicket victory over struggling Watton-at-Stone. The win lifts Town back up to 6th place in the league table, just three points out of the promotion places.

Town arrived in North Hertfordshire to find a flat but rather sticky wicket and when Ravi Ramawat lost the toss, Town were asked to field. In the absence of strike bowlers Shahmeer Syed and Neal Furmenger (who have 22 wickets between them this season), the new ball responsibilities fell to Adam Hills and Meeth Katira. In the early overs the pair rather wasted the new ball before Hills (2/25 off 14 overs) chose to slow the pace down and was rewarded with the wicket of Waight.

Watton scored at a very slow pace as their top order, possibly mindful of the youthful look of the remainder of their side - batted without taking many risks. Hills, Sachin Dave and Suvin Mekwan bowled the vast majority of Town's overs and Mekwan in particular was a star performer returning figures of 34/4 off 13 overs including the key wicket of wicketkeeper Martin Keswick for 55. Skipper Tipper and all-rounder Martin Trahar gave Watton's score some respectability as they looked for quick singles but they were only about to see the hosts to a total of 141/8 off their 53 overs. They had scored only 8 boundaries off the bat in their innings.

In reply, Suvin Mekwan continued to have an outstanding game as he smashed a quickfire 47 with some lusty but controlled shots to take Town to 61/0 off 13 overs. When he edged behind, it signaled the rather predictable middle order collapse as Town fell to 68/3 and the runs dried up. The slow pace of Rob Clayton was causing problems for Town but Jim Cotton and Ravi Kotecha got Town back on track with a mature partnership of 36 for the 6th wicket. Kotecha's dismissal saw another collapse and Town found themselves on 119/8 still needing 33 with 11 overs remaining.

Cotton batted with tremendous patience and was supported well by Saj Malik who put away the bad balls he was given. Town got home with 15 balls remaining without further loss of wickets. Malik hit the winning runs on his way to 16* but Cotton was the star of Town's innings with a classy 32*. Town had ultimately made heavy weather of what should have been a comfortable run chase.

As a unit, Town's batsmen are failing to score enough runs. On paper, they bat down the order and there are shedloads of runs. But those batsmen need to start taking responsibility as Town wont keep bowling teams out for sub-par scores on green wickets. A tough fixture away at Broxbourne awaits next week as Town will aim to keep the pressure on the top 5.

Watton at Stone II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
5nb 4w 9b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
19
141 (53.0 overs)		     
D Waight ct  Kotecha b Hills 2
M Keswick ct  Sanghi b Mekwan 55
M Freeman ct  Cotton b Hills 6
M Tipper Not Out  30
P Hall lbw  b Mekwan 0
D Doyle b  Dave 6
J Wing b  Mekwan 0
M Trahar b  Mekwan 27
J Glasscock run out  (Sanghi/Mekwan) 0
J Elliot  
R Clayton  

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Adam Hills14.0625212.501.79
Meeth Katira4.011300.003.25
Sajid Shafique Malik6.012100.003.50
Sachin Dave16.0138138.002.37
Suvin Mekwan13.033448.502.62

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 2w 2b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
7
143		        
Kunal Sanghi ct  Keswick b Hall 17 2 1 1
Suvin Mekwan ct  Keswick b Clayton 47 6 2 1
Ravi Ramawat lbw  b Clayton 0
Andy Burt b  Hall 5 1
Jamie Cotton Not Out  32 3 1
Pradip Pandey b  Hall 0
Ravi Kotecha ct  Elliot b Waight 20 4 1
Adam Hills b  Clayton 0
Sachin Dave b  Clayton 1
Sajid Shafique Malik Not Out  16 2
Meeth Katira  

Watton at Stone II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J Hall18.0555318.333.06
M Trahar6.013000.005.00
R Clayton18.083849.502.11
D Waight2.0014114.007.00
J Glasscock0.30400.008.00