Scorecard

Stevenage III v Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI on Sat 08 Aug 2020 at 1:00 pm
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 14 runs.

Match report Town 2nd XI arrived at Ditchmore Lane on a hot day, tmp were expected to reach 35C, pitch looked rock solid & along with a fast (public park) outfield, it was clear that it was a bat 1st day, which they did after winning the toss.

Town openers, Gairola & Halai started the innings and started from where they both left in the previous innings, anything full or short was put to the boundaries, helped by the fast outfield which had a bad bounce as well. Both opening batsmen made full use of the pace on offer equally helped by some loose bowling and fast outfield. At the end of 10 overs, town were 82/0. Stevenage made a double bowling change and turned to their spinners but both batsmen well set, kept the scoring rate around 8 at all time. Gairloa in particular was very severe on the spinners, every time they erred in length. Together they took town total to 140 before Gairola got out on 83 providing another solid opening foundation for a big total. Sheikh walked into the middle and joined Halai and together they added 40 runs between them before Halia got run out trying to take 3 runs from deep extra cover. Town were in a very healthy position of 183/2 in 23 overs.

It was quite clear by this time that it was going to be a 'Save Boundaries' strategy from Stevenage, all fielders were spread on boundary & bowlers told not to offer any pace. Anjum and Sheikh tried their best to keep the scoring rate at 8 RPO but Anjum perished at deep square leg trying to hit a maximum. Sensing a big total, Pandey demoted himself the order & Mapara was sent up the order to keep the scoring rate high but he too found the going tough due to lack of pace and got out cheaply, on the other hand, Sheikh kept the scoreboard ticking and punished anything that was loose, severely. He too perished soon after Mapara but scored a much needed 58 that included some lovely trademark lofted hits. Town were 233/5 at the start of the 33rd over. An eye on getting another 70 odd in the next 7 overs. Janardhan  played another useful innings and with the help of Madhavan & Malik, took town total to 279/8 in their 40 overs. Town missed a trick towards the end, going for boundaries when 2 runs were available all along. Nonetheless, it was a score that town felt was very defend-able given their bowling strength.

After a short break, Town opening bowlers Malik & Patel started the business hrs. Stevenage started positively, punishing anything that was full and pace and unfortunately Malik who is normally very accurate with his lengths, couldn't adjust quick enough this time but Patel on the other hand bowled beautifully and kept one end tight and was soon rewarded with a wicket by cleaning-up the batsman. Mapara replaced Malik but a boundary kept coming in every over. At the end of the 15th over, Stevenage were 88/1, both batsmen set and started taking their chances and a double bowling change was introduced in the form of Syed and Madhavan. Syed got the much needed breakthrough in his 1st over that he bowled by getting the set opener caught at mid-wicket and to the skipper's delight, got oppositions no 4 in his next over. Stevenage at the halfway were 100/3 in 20 overs, needing 180 in 20 at 9RPO. Thinking game is all but over now, town got slightly complacent and what came next was something that they needed this season.

Stevenage No 3 who was well set by now, started to take his chances and played some lofted shots and was equally helped by a very uneven outfield where the ball would jump over fielders head when bounced in front of them. Together with No5, they both put town fielders under the pump and started converting 1s into 2s and 2s into 3s. Together they collected 100 runs in the next 10 overs taking Stevenage total to 190/3 in 30 overs, needing another 90 in the next 10 overs. Town were under the pressure for the 1s time for a while and looked like the pressure was getting to them, especially with the fielding. Same pair collected another 40 runs in the next 3 overs bringing the equation to 50 more from 7 overs with 7 wickets in hand.  When the game looked all but gone, town skipper Pandey played a masterstroke (that's what he called it after the game) and got Sheikh into the attack with his canny line & length and Sheikh got the breakthrough that town were desperate for by getting the No3 caught behind the stumps. Although Stevenage kept RR up for the next couple of overs but they also kept losing wickets at the regular interval, Malik took double in his last over and Sheikh took a wicket in each of his over before Patel cleaned-up up the no 11 to win the game by 14 runs.

It was a great game of cricket, Town went through different emotions from, 'Game is in the bag' to, 'We can't lose this' to 'We are losing this' to 'Yes, we got it' such was the roller-coaster. Town had enough runs to defend and with their bowling attack, it should have been an easy game but fair play to the opponents, they played a very smart game and put town fielders under the pressure.In the end, town came up triumphant by just a small margin. A very hard fought deserving win we all should be proud of. Yes there are areas of improvement and we need to work on them but this win also shows our strength, resolve and character. We move on.

UpWards & OnWards!
  

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 2w 2b 7lb 
for 8 wickets
14
279		        
Deepak Gairola ct b J. Singh 83 82 62 14 133.87 1
Jesant Halai run out (P. Garikipathi) 69 110 73 8 94.52
Tanveer Sheikh ct b J. Singh 58 63 50 5 3 116.00
Iqbal Anjum ct b J. Singh 8 15 11 1 72.73
Nishil Mapara ct b S. Pawar 5 13 6 83.33
Harish Janardhanan ct b L. Martin 27 30 18 2 1 150.0 1
Nischay Madhavan ct b S. Pawar 6 13 12 1 50.0
Sajid Shafique Malik ct b M. Clucas 9 4 9 1 100
Pratik Patel Not Out  0 5 1 0
Shahmir Syed Not Out  0 1 1 0
Pradip Pandey  

Stevenage III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
S. Irangati8.004700.005.88
M. Clucas4.0041141.0010.25
L. Martin4.0038138.009.50
L. McCabe8.005000.006.25
S. Pawar8.0048224.006.00
J. Singh8.0046315.335.75

Stevenage III Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
5nb 7w 10b 7lb 
for 10 wickets
29
266 (40.0 overs)		     
A. Zargar ct H. Janardhan b S. Syed 42
S. Mathur b P. Patel 5
A. Joshan ct D. Gairola b T. Sheikh 87
C. Parichuti b S. Syed 3
P. Garikipati b S. Malik 67
J. Singh b T. Sheikh 23
M. Clucas b S. Malik 0
S. Irangati Not Out  6
L. Martin b T. Sheikh 0
S. Pawar b P. Patel 4
L. McCabe b T. Sheikh 0

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sajid Shafique Malik8.0073236.509.13
Pratik Patel7.0021210.503.00
Nishil Mapara5.002700.005.40
Nischay Madhavan5.002600.005.20
Shahmir Syed6.0035217.505.83
Iqbal Anjum4.003500.008.75
Harish Janardhanan1.001400.0014.00
Tanveer Sheikh3.301844.505.14