Scorecard

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI v Leverstock Green II on Sat 03 Jul 2021 at 12pm
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 93 runs

Match report Town welcomed Leverstock Green II looking to bounce back after last week’s defeat. With overcast conditions and wet pitch it was no surprise as LG II (Leverstock Green II) won the toss and decided to bowl first.

LG’s bowers started with very tight line and length and made it very difficult for Town batsmen to score runs. Vadgama finally proved that he’s a human after all as he got out without troubling the scorers. Looking at LG bowlers taking advantage of the conditions with good discipline one would struggle to understand how they are bottom of the table.

Loomba was joined by Modi who’s over aggressive batting this season has been widely criticised by the fans. But he started applying himself like Dravid and together with Loomba started building an inning although at a slow rate which is very unusual for him. Loomba and Modi cautiously put on 56 runs partnership and just when Town thought recovery was going well Loomba was given LBW having scored 24. Sheikh departed on the very next ball and Sawyer was on a hat-trick. M Patel joined Modi and looked in good touch before retiring hurt with dislocated shoulder. Unalkat faield to carry on from last week and departed quickly leaving Town 84/5 effectively. Modi kept going about his business with some glorious straight drives and cover drives but was in danger of running out of partners. Lawrence walked in an in an unusal fashion started putting the pressure back on LG bowlers by latching on to anything that was lose. He scored quick fire 30 to bring Town back into the game at 135/5. Meanwhile Modi went past a well-deserved 50 which came at a crucial time. Late cameos from Madhavan and K Patel meant Town ended up posting a very competitive score of 187 all out. Star of the show at this point was clearly Modi who eventually fell for 75 but it was a special inning looking at the conditions.

Chasing 188 to win LG batsmen struggled to get going from the beginning. This was thanks to Daly and Syed who bowled superb line and lengths giving LG batsmen no easy deliveries to score any runs. In particular swing king Syed kept bowling his usual banana in-swingers and mixed with variation kept LG batsmen guessing. It was unfortunate that he didn’t get any wicket. Daly on the other hand returning from his injury gave town an early breakthrough. Going at 2 runs per over at this stage it was clear LG batsmen weren’t thinking about chasing the target and survival was a priority. Daly and Syed’s combined opening spell of 15 overs went just for 30 runs. Replacing Syed was VC Patel who was also making his comeback from a knee injury (thanks to Viral patel failing his fitness test). There was lot of turn on the offer and despite showing bit of rustiness Patel bowled with good control making sure runs were hard to come by. Lawrence replaced Daly bowling down the hill for the first time. And having kept pressure on LG batsmen Patel was rewarded for his first wicket of the season and Lawrence taking couple of wickets at the other end leaving LG 53/4 after 28 overs.

Lawrence did however continued from last week bowling few wides which Loomba wasn’t pleased with and we were all going to hear the in-famous line of “Kyle have a blow mate!” However Lawrence bowling the 29th over had other ideas. First ball of the over went for a boundary. What happened next was something even Lawrence probably never dreamt of. 2nd ball of the over Lawrence cleaned up Ali. 3rd bowl of the over Lawrence cleaned up Walker for a quick WALK back to the pavilion leaving himself on a hat-trick. Bet 365 at this stage were still offering 75/1 for Lawrence to take the hat-trick knowing he’s not hit the stumps for more than 1 ball before. Surprised no one got on that as the 4th ball of the over Clarke was beaten all ends up as the ball just clipped top of off to give Lawrence a brilliant hat-trick. That ball would have got most of the batsmen out and Town players all started celebrating with Lawrence. Just when everyone though ok it’s all calm now 5th ball of the wicket Khan left an in swinging delivery which knocked his off stump off giving Lawrence 4th wicket in as many balls. Town players were going mental on the field. Sawyer facing the last ball of the over tried to defend the ball but just like previous 4 batsmen he failed to get his bat on it and was trapped plumb in front for an LBW. No one could believe what was happening as Lawrence took 5 wickets in 5 balls. None of the Town players had witnessed anything like this before. So an over which started with a boundary finished with 5 wickets. So first ball of Lawrence’s next over was for a double hat-trick and my word he close to taking one. LG batsman trying to hit him out of the park and the ball landing just short of Daly at long on. Lawrence quickly got the last wicket to finish with 8-36. LG getting all out just for 94 giving Town a very convincing win. What was more special was Lawrence’s wife witnessed this unbelievable achievement from the boundary line as well. Lawrence’s achievement is going to live in the memory of all Town players forever. However after this performance as first change bowler Lawrence may have shot himself in the foot as he’s unlikely to get the new ball again. But why would you complaint if you can run through oppositions middle order in 5 balls?

Loomba spoke after the game: on a very difficult pitch I thought we put on a total which was always going to be difficult to chase. Credit to Sohan for anchoring an inning and allowing us to post a competitive total. On Lawrence’s achievement: wow how do you describe that what a phenomenal performance? It’s the best piece of cricket anyone has ever played at Town and likely won’t happen again. On being top of the table after Finchleians lost: look as I talked about it last week we’re not really looking at other teams and their performance or results. We just want to keep playing good cricket and win our matches. If we continue to do that we will see where we finish at the end of the season but right now all we’re focusing on is next week’s game against Watford Town.

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
12w 4lb 
for 10 wickets
16
187		        
Akshay Loomba lbw Sawyer 24 2
Veer Vadgama ct Walker b Mathew 0
Sohan Modi lbw Tyson 75 5 3 2
Tanveer Sheikh ct b Sawyer 0
Mikhil Patel Not Out  11 1
Amish Unalkat ct b Sawyer 1
Kyle Lawrence Run out  30 6
Nischay Madhavan ct b Merret 18 1
Krunal Patel ct b Tyson 11 1 1
Jack Daly ct b Tyson 1
Shahmir Syed Run out  1

Leverstock Green II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Mathew10.0023123.002.30
Khan7.002100.003.00
Ali10.005300.005.30
Sawyer10.002939.672.90
Dom2.001500.007.50
Tyson6.3030310.004.62
Merret4.00313.000.75

Leverstock Green II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 18w 3b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
25
94 (33.0 overs)		     
N Merret ct Modi b Lawrence 18
C Sacby ct Modi b Daly 2
R Tyson ct & b K Patel 10
J Chan b Lawrence 0
A Ali b Lawrence 5
I Iqbal Not Out  25
R Walker b Lawrence 0
D Clarke b Lawrence 0
A Khan b Lawrence 0
O Sawyer lbw Lawrence 0
T Mathew b Lawrence 9

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jack Daly8.0311111.001.38
Shahmir Syed7.011900.002.71
Krunal Patel7.0313113.001.86
Kyle Lawrence9.023684.504.00
Nischay Madhavan2.001200.006.00

  • Umpire :
    Colin Lynch
  • Scorer :