Scorecard

Northchurch II v Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI on Sat 01 Sep 2018 at 01:00pm
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 187 runs.

Match report Northwood Town 2nd XI arrived at North Church's lovely ground on a fine day which was also the last game of the league. Town won the toss and decided to bat on a track that was very hard and outfield looked lightning quick.

Church needing 8 points to secure their promotion, played 1 of their 1s bowler and the message was quite clear to him and that was to bowl fast and at the body. Despite some early eyebrows raised, the Church bowlers kept bowling short pitched and targeted head and it was only a matter of time before Haji got hit full blown on his face trying to pull the ball and it was blood all over on the pitch. Pandey joined skipper Ramawat and got a snorter of a delivery upfront that took his middle stump out.

Sheikh who was returning after a long break joined the hostile middle and despite the early Haji incident, the 2 bowlers kept bowling short and one such short and dangerous delivery that was aimed at skipper Ramawat's head who went for a pull but only top edged to square leg left score line 2 for 49 in 15 overs. Anjum who had been batting brilliantly in previous matches, joined Sheikh in the middle and soon Sheikh was greeted with a short ball that hit his helmet and this time Pandey who was umpiring gave the 1st and final warning to the bowler who clearly didn't like it who later on returned from the other end where his home umpire was operating.

From there on what happened was not seen before in the 2s for a very long time and specially Church had never imagined. Sheikh taking the situation bit personal and decided to reply them in his own manner, he started playing shots all around the park with such ferocity and authority that even the hard-core sledger from Church went in exile within few overs, realising what was about to come. Such was power and placement of Sheikh’s shots that he created a pin drop silence in the opposition camp. To give a summary, town raced from 49 to 135 in the next 10 overs collecting 86 runs.

Anjum on the other hand provided excellent support to Sheikh. Sheikh who was all set by this time looking for a big score was very watchful of any good delivery and was equally murderous in case if the bowler slightly errored in line length. The ‘Sheikh Anjum’ show carried on for the next 15 overs, smashing Church bowlers to all parts with audacious authority and decimation. Finally Sheikh got out caught on 125 trying to hit a massive six towards the longest part of the ground. Together they had a brilliant partnership of 200 runs and before Sheikh got out, he ensured the Church were not only down & decimated but had no energy and zeal left in them. From there on town collected another 68 runs in the next 13 overs & ended up posting a huge total of 318 for 8 in their 50 overs. Anjum played a fine innings of 73 and was ably supported by P. Patel (31) towards the end.

After a tea break and with high emotions on both camps, town started their bowling attack with Syed and P. Patel and as expected, Church opener Randall came hard on anything full or short and smashed few boundaries in the first few overs. Patel soon in his 2nd over cleaned up the other opener with a beautiful delivery that pitched on length and took some shape and off stump with it. Came out Lindsay who was the main short pitch bowler from Church and skipper Ramawat resisted dishing out his own medicine to him and to his delight, Patel in the same over cleaned him up with a beautiful full swinging delivery making Lindsay look like a perfect tail ender which sure he was.

Randell was firm with his approach from the other end and continued punishing anything full and kept smashing the ball to the boundary, town knew he was the man they needed to get out quickly. Early bowling change meant the ever accurate Shah was on and he straight away got a success in his 2nd over by clearing Church no 4 furniture and to skippers further delight, Patel in his next over got Randall caught in front of stumps and when umpire raised his figure, Randall couldn’t believe that he was actually given out LBW for the 1st time in this season! Church scoreline was 50 for 4 in 12 overs.

From there on it was quite clear that there was only going to be 1 team who are going to be the winners and it was just a matter of time before Town wrapped up the Church innings. Patel bowled his quota of full 10 overs with immense control and pace and ended up taking 6 wickets with 4 maidens and giving away only 25 runs and Shah supported him equally well by taking 3 wickets and the final wicket was taken by Avadhani.

It was a fairy-tale end to an amazing season. A thumping & crushing win by 187 runs. A win that was based on Sheikh and Anjum show where Sheikh hammered his maiden ton for the Town on his debut year and Anjum who has shown that what a fine & true all-rounder he is. In the bowling department, it was again the ever reliable P. Patel who cleaned up the Church batting line-up with his classic seam and swing bowing without relying on dirty ‘bodyline’ approach. Well done to all and a fantastic way to end the season!

Skipper Ramawat spoke after the game, ‘It was an excellent season with tremendous play and effort from all. It is very disappointing that we missed the promotion by 21 points but I must say that we were simply unlucky in several ways and on several occasions. Only if we had the old lady luck, we would have been promoted. Having said that, I couldn’t fault the efforts by every single player who played for the 2s this year. What an effort and performance. Couldn’t have asked for more’.

With a team that we have and the energy and efforts that we bring, it is a little doubt that we will get promoted next year.

OnWards & UpWards!

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 9w 9b 5lb 
for 8 wickets
27
318		        
Fozan Haji Retired Not Out  14 1
Ravi Ramawat ct Lindsay 19 2
Pradip Pandey b Vila 1
Tanveer Sheikh ct Chapman 125 18 5 1
Iqbal Anjum ct Chapman 73 10
Pratik Patel ct Bennie 31 3
Rabi Motiwala lbw James 5 1
Ali Naqvi ct Chapman 6 1
Keval Shah ct James 3
Kashyap Avadhani Not Out  6 1
Shahmir Syed Not Out  2

Northchurch II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Pyne5.002100.004.20
Randall5.002400.004.80
Lindsay8.0150150.006.25
Vila8.0325125.003.12
Bennie4.0033133.008.25
Chapman10.0061320.336.10
Dawson5.004200.008.40
James6.0052226.008.67

Northchurch II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 5w 10b 5lb 
for 10 wickets
23
131 (27.5 overs)		     
Randall lbw P. Patel 39
Pyne b P. Patel 0
Lindsay b P. Patel 0
J. Fawtham b K. Shah 0
Towler b P. Patel 12
James b K. Shah 0
Dawson b P. Patel 17
Chapman b P. Patel 0
Bennie lbw K. Shah 0
A. Faltham ct T. Sheikh b K. Avadhani 27
Villa Not Out  12

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Shahmir Syed3.003200.0010.67
Pratik Patel10.042564.172.50
Keval Shah10.022237.332.20
Kashyap Avadhani3.5012112.003.13
Ali Naqvi1.001200.0012.00