Scorecard

West Herts III v Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI on Sat 28 Jul 2018 at 01:00pm
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 8 wickets.

Match report Town travelled to West Herts second ground on a very windy and unsettling day on back of 3 wins. After a lot of confusion around the location of ground, town were presented with a beautiful looking pitch which oozed tons of runs with lighting outfield.

Town won the toss and keeping team composition in mind, choose to take field first. New ball was shared between every reliable Malik and new ball debutant solid S. Patel. The pitch offered good bounce and carry for both sides to take advantage of. Both town new ball bowlers started really well despite the gusty winds. To give you an idea of how strong the winds were, both side screens were blown away and torn apart by the sheer brute force of the winds and umpires had to pick up the bails twice at least in every over.

S. Patel got the break straight away in his first over by uprooting the stumps of Herts opener. The other Herts opener kept taking his chances while number 3 tried to build the innings while both town opening bowlers bowled with good control. For the first 12 overs, Herts managed to score 37 with the loss of 1 wicket showing how good both the opening bowlers bowled on a good batting track.

Change of bowling attack meant our own K. Shah was back into the mix after spending a long time in the 1s with P. Patel from other end, whose stature as a bowler is growing with every match. Both started bowling beautifully, pitching in the right areas and asking questions to the Herts batsmen who were hoping for some easy passage. Soon Shah got other opener out caught at mid-on courtesy R. Patel and in his next over, bowled no 3, providing town with double breakthrough. P. Patel who was bowling equally well from the other side, kept bowling relentlessly on the money without showing any fatiuge and finally got rewarded by getting no.5 lbw on 9 making the Herts scoreline 70 for 4 in 22 overs. In a danger of collapse, Herts no 4 & 6 started playing very cautiously which resulted drop in scoring rate. By the end of 30 overs, they were 98 for 4. P. Patel finished his 10 overs in a trott for 27 for 1 wicket bringing end to an excellent spell.

Towns twin spin duo started weaving their magic but it was very difficult due to strong winds, specially for Anjum to control the loop. R. Patel although had no impact of winds and continued putting pressure on Herts batsmen who were already under pressure to up the scoring rate as the overs were running out quickly and finally town got a breakthrough when no 4 got caught by Malik of R Patel in pursuit of a boundary. The score line at the end of 40 overs was 139 for 5. It was quite simple from that point for Herts, which was to score as many runs from the last 10 and for town, it was to ensure we keep them down below 180. In the end, Herts scored another 54 runs with a loss of 2 more wickets. Herts finished their quota of 50 overs scoring 193 for the loss of 7 wickets.

Town felt, they gave away extra 20 runs but also felt the score was below par on a track that was beautiful to bat on. After tea break, town openers Haji and Ramawat started the innings with a positive intent by putting anything loose to the boundary and soon town got to 38 without any wicket in the first 10 overs. Herts bowlers kept providing the loose balls every now and then and both openers ensured they were put for maximum where possible. The trend continued and town reached to 105 by the end of 20th over and the key, both the openers were still at the crease. This not only ensure town were well on course but also dropped Hearts head and shoulders. Ramawat who was playing fluently fell down in 22nd over while the score was 115 bringing an end to an excellent openning partnership.

Haji, who was batting with supreme control form other end, kept building his inning and reached to his 50 in the 25 over. As was the case in his previous ton, he started playing his pull shots and it was not looking good for Herts from there on as Haji was looking ominous, punishing anything fractional short or full. Together with Pandey, Haji had a second partnership of 45 runs out of which, Pandey's score was 4, such was Haji's control over the game. Pandey got out in the 35th over when the score was 160 and by that time, there was only 1 team who was going to win and in this period, Haji ensured it was not only town but he also collected his second ton of the season. His batting was full of confidence and stroke play highlighted by pulls and drives. An innings that is very rare and of highest quality ensuring town reached home without any concerns.

Brilliant victory, based on a brilliant bowling effort. All bowled brilliantly but the stars were P. Patel, Shah and R. Patel. Our bowlers ensured that the batters had a target that was easy to achieve on a pitch that was considered the best batting track they have seen this season so far. Haji, while batting ensured that town had no surprises and rolled the opposition with all the calmness and authority.

We are now entering into the the last quarter of the league and that only means its business time. Its going to be tough and every game is going to be played hard by all teams. Skipper Ramawat had no doubt that if we carry on with this intention, effort and energy, we will end up on the right side and at the right level.

UpWards & OnWards!

West Herts III Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
12w 7lb 
for 7 wickets
19
193 (50.0 overs)		     
F. Rehman ct  R. Patel b K. Shah 31
R. Gureng b  S. Patel 0
D. King b  K. Shah 21
N. Bokharia ct  S. Malik b R. Patel 47
C. Mahale lbw  P. Patel 9
R. Ranabaha Not Out  43
E. Raja b  R. Patel 5
T. Subhari b  K. Shah 17
T. Roy Not Out  1
T. Gillthorp  
R. Sanghra  

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sajid Shafique Malik7.013400.004.86
Suryanaryan Patel6.0219119.003.17
Keval Shah9.022638.672.89
Pratik Patel10.0127127.002.70
Kashyap Avadhani4.002200.005.50
Ramchandra Patel7.021728.502.43
Iqbal Anjum7.003600.005.14

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 6w 18b 5lb 
for 2 wickets
30
194		        
Fozan Haji Not Out  107 17 1
Ravi Ramawat lbw  b T. Subhari 40 7
Pradip Pandey lbw  b T. Gillthorp 4
Rabi Motiwala Not Out  12 2
Suryanaryan Patel  
Ramchandra Patel   1
Pratik Patel  
Iqbal Anjum  
Sajid Shafique Malik   1
Keval Shah  
Kashyap Avadhani  

West Herts III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
T. Subhari10.0132132.003.20
R. Janghera7.003800.005.43
J. Roy5.002300.004.60
E. Raja3.002800.009.33
N. Bokaria1.00500.005.00
T. Gillthorp10.0024124.002.40
C. Mchale4.001700.004.25
R. Gureng1.00600.006.00