Scorecard

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI v St Albans III on Sat 13 Jul 2019 at 1:00 PM
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 42 runs.

Match report Town welcomed St Albans 3rd XI at home for the 2nd leg of fixtures. A pitch that looked green and tempted both skippers to have a go with the ball and make use of overcast conditions. Town lost the toss and were asked to bat as expected.

Coming back to opening position, Gairola was determined to make a mark along with ever assured skipper Ramawat on the other end. Saint’s fielded a completely different team to the 1st leg and looked like a good unit and new ball was shared between the 2 colts who were very impressive with their pace and swing. Town openers started with caution with a view to let the good passage of bowling pass. There were some unplayable deliveries but fortunately for town there were some loose deliveries too which town made full use of. At the end of 10th over, town were 54 without a loss and the highlight was a perfect pull shot from the skipper. As happened too many times, just when things looked well settled, skipper Ramawat got out edging to keeper in the 13th over to the 1st change bowler when the score was 65 in the 13th over. Pandey joined Gairola in the middle who was looing resolved and determined to play a long and good innings, defending anything good and punishing anything that was offered in his zone. Together they kept the score moving and added 38 runs in the next 8 over until Pandey got out trying to loft a straight deliver, leaving scoreline 105/2 in 21 overs.

Brahmbhatt joined Gairola in the middle with a stage perfectly set for a big total. Together they both carried on playing good cricket, respecting good deliveries and putting bad balls away collecting 70 runs in the next 13 overs. At the end of 32nd over, the stage was perfectly set for a rampage as town were 170/2 with 8 wickets in hand and 13 overs remaining. What came next was not the part of the plan as town lost 2 quick wickets in the next over and followed with another wicket in the over, leaving scoreline175/5 in 35 overs. Both the set batsmen were gone as they tried to take on the bowling that was very good and assisted by the pitch but not before Gairola played a very mature innings, mix of caution and aggression when needed. Now the plan was changed and it was to cross the 225 mark but Mapara had something different in his mind, came to bat in the 39th over when town were struggling to cross 200 and started his trademark game by hitting crisply through the line and played some excellent shots and reminded how good he is when it comes to destroying the bowling attacks, Mapara single handed bulldozed town total to way past 250 and ended up staying unbeaten on 43 taking town total to 262/9 in 45 overs. A total town felt was well above the par on the pitch that had enough assistance for the bowlers.

After another ‘DIY’ tea, town took the field and new ball was shared between Malik who has bowled really well this season and Mapara who was pumped up after his blistering innings with the bat. Saint started positively but both town bowlers were right on the money from ball 1 giving hardly anything to Saint openers to work with. After a bit of strangle, Malik produced an absolute beauty that kissed Saint openers blade and settled into Gairola’s gloves giving town its 1st breakthrough. Town knew that Saints had a good team on the park and they would keep coming hard and this is exactly what they got, Saint batsmen looked good with their technique and approach and kept up with the scoring rate but lost another wicket to Mapara who was bowling equally well from the other side. At the end of 10th over, Saint were 52/2. Just when things looked settled for Saints both Mapara and Malik got the no 3 & 4 out in successive overs to break the Saints chase and left the scoreboard 64/4 in 14 overs.

At this point, the game looked well in control of town and a double bowling change was introduced in the form of Syed and Gordhandas. Conditions perfectly suited for Syed and he did not disappoint, he kept the batsmen on their toes with his perfect lengths and swing but unfortunately town leaked some runs from the other end. Saints moved to 100 in 20 for the loss of 4 wickets. Another bowling change was introduced and Anjum was brought into the attack. Saints had 2 of their most experienced campaigners in the middle who looked very solid and determined in their approach, playing risk free cricket by rotating the strike and punishing the bad balls, unfortunately the bad balls kept coming every over and Saint made sure they kept cashing every single opportunity that was presented to them. The trend continued and gradually the partnership looked solid and threatening. At the end of 35th over Saint needed 100 runs to score from the last 15 overs with 6 wickets in hand.

A quick huddle in the middle and the game plan was changed, Brahmbhatt who was struggling with his groin niggle was introduced to the bowling and some good fielding straight away got the rewards. First Gordhandas, who took an excellent running catch from deep mid on to send the Saints set batsman back into the pavilion and then Brahmbhatt showing his presence of mind from slips got another Saint batsmen ran out when he was beaten by a beautiful deliver from Syed and took an extra second to get back into the crease.

The scoreboard pressure took its toll and Saint batsmen kept falling at the regular interval. In the end they well all out for 220 in the 45th over when the final wicket fell from a direct hit from the long-on boundary.

It was a fantastic game which kept changing the balance until very late. Albans had the perfect mix of youth and experience and looked worth every penny. It was truly a team effort by town to win the game. Brilliant effort earlier by Gairola and Mapara with the bat and good bowling by every reliable Malik who was well supported by Mapara, Syed and Brahmbhatt. Special mention to our new joiner Kalhan who patrolled the point boundary with abundance of energy.

Onwards & Upwards!

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
9nb 21w 19b 4lb 
for 9 wickets
53
262		        
Deepak Gairola ct b J. Telkman 84 103 11 81.55 2
Ravi Ramawat ct b U. Vijender 15 22 3 68.18 1
Pradip Pandey b U. Vijender 8 22 1 36.36 1
Bhushan Brahmbhatt ct b J. Telkman 18 30 3 60.0 1 1
Neel Kalhan lbw b Z. West 1 3 33.33
Iqbal Anjum ct b Z. West 17 22 3 77.27 1
Vinodh Balakrishnan b Z. West 15 7 2 214.29
Nishil Mapara Not Out  43 25 6 1 172.00
Kishan Gordhandas Run out  0 1
Shahmir Syed Not Out  2
Sajid Shafique Malik  

St Albans III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
D. Baylis7.013900.005.57
J. Button9.014000.004.44
U. Vijender9.0037218.504.11
A. Murphy5.003300.006.60
J. Telkman9.0040220.004.44
Z. West6.0050316.678.33

St Albans III Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 4w 10b 4lb 
for 10 wickets
20
220 (44.3 overs)		     
D. Hancock ct D. Gairola b S. Malik 3
A. Rudlin run out B. Brahmbatt 32
A. Murphy b N. Mapara 0
R. Baylis ct D. Gairola b N. Mapara 62
J. Talkman ct B. Brahmbatt b S. Syed 12
U. Vijender ct K. Gordhandas b B. Brahmbatt 48
J. Button ct I. Anjum b N. Mapara 12
A. Walker b N. Mapara 10
J. Button ct D. Gairola b B. Brahmbatt 4
D. Baylis run out R. Ramawat 8
Z. West Not Out  9

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sajid Shafique Malik9.0240140.004.44
Nishil Mapara9.023047.503.33
Shahmir Syed9.0140140.004.44
Kishan Gordhandas3.002500.008.33
Iqbal Anjum8.004100.005.13
Bhushan Brahmbhatt6.3030215.004.62