Scorecard

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI v Old Cholmeleians II on Sat 31 Aug 2019 at 1:00 PM
Northwood Town Cricket Club Won by 188 runs.

Match report Last home game for the Town 2nd XI of this season and they welcomed the very friendly ‘Cholmeleians´ at Chestnut Avenue. Town loss the toss and were asked to bat on a surface that looked good for the batting with quick outfield. After having a photo session with our expat chairman, town started their innings with Gairola and Halai. Both started positively with Halai looking solid as ever and Gairola sticking to his natural flamboyance. Together they added 60 runs in the first 10 overs laying a solid foundation for a decent total. Both of them made full use of anything short with Gairola taking to pulls and Halai sticking to cuts. Both batted with such a control that skipper in balcony started dreaming about a 300+ score. Together they added another 70 runs in the next 10 overs taking town total to 130/0 in 20 overs. Crossley who was dishing very slow and accurate pies finally got better of Gairola who danced down the wicket to sweep but still managed to miss the straight ball and got out lbw. Gairola made a fine 66 before getting out. Given the situation, Brahambhatt walked in the middle and kept the run rate up. Halai who was now well set was cutting and sweeping with precision and passed his 50 in the 26rd over.

Realising that pace is not going to work on this pitch, OF slowed the pace considerably, making it harder for the town batsmen to hit. Brahambhatt played a good innings of 37 in 30 deliveries before getting out trying to up the run rate. Score line now 207/2 in 30 overs a target of 300+ in remaining 15 overs was a very good possibility. It was quite clear now, town had to play hard and push for every single run and hit the bad balls to the boundary to ensure they get that rare 300+ score. Kotecha walked into the middle with promising the skipper in the balcony that he will not defend a single delivery. As we all know, Kotacha’s promises are like full moon, never last a day and shrink by each day. He defended the first delivery that he played. Halai who was rock solid from the other end, kept punishing anything loose and ran hard with Kotecha in between the wickets. Together they added 30 runs before Halai got out on 97 to a loose delivery that was there to be cut. Halai was very unlucky to not to get to a well deserved 100. Mr Reliable walked in and started the push again. Town were 245/3 in 35 overs. With 10 overs remaining, town decided to push for a 350 score with 7 wickets in hand. In pursuit of that target, Kotecha got out but stitched a partnership of 70 runs with Anjum leaving town score line 303/4 in 40 overs. Anjum was well set by now and Janardhan joined him in the middle. Together they moved to the next gear and collected 50 runs in the last 5 overs, pushing town total to a massive score of 351/4 in 45 overs.

It was such a day where every batsmen who walked in, struck gold dust and ensured that town ended up posting this year’s division highest total of 351. After having a lovely tea from Marjorie (2 in a row) it was time for the town to take the field and bring the 30 points home.

New ball was shared between every reliable olden golden boys, Malik and Pandey. Both bowling beautifully this season, started with the precision that they have been bowling with, giving nothing loose to the opposition, together they bowled some tight line & lengths and were unlucky to have not picked up any wickets in the 1st 10 overs, OC’s score line was 30/0. A double bowling change was introduced in the form of Gordhandas and Syed who both kept the tight leash on the OC’s openers and Syed as he has done quite often in the past, broke the opening partnership with a beautiful delivery and equally brilliant catch by Kptecha at short mid-off. OC started rebuilding their innings but by now it was quite clear that they are not going to try and chase the target but collect the batting points as many as they can. Duo of Gordhandas and Syed together bowled 12 overs and at the end of 22 overs, OC were 70/1. Another double bowling change got Janardhan and Carigan into the attack and Janardhan straightaway got the breakthrough for the town by removing the OC opener by edging past to the keeper. Janardhan bowled beautifully to finish his quota of full 9 overs and collected further 3 more wickets and finished with a figure of 10-4-23-4.

By the end of 35 overs, it was a matter of formality for the town to finish the game and collect the much deserved 30 points & for OC’s it was about collecting as many batting points as they could. The highlights of remaining 10 overs was Kotecha’s maiden wicket that bought much delight to the balcony. In the end, town won the game by a huge margin of 188 runs.

A massive win based on a remarkable batting effort by the town openers Halai and Gairola, followed by good innings from Anjum and Brahambhatt later on. While bowling, Janardhan collected 4 wickets and got much needed overs under his belt to be ready for the next fixture. A clinical performance by town to get them over the line comfortably. We move on to the last game of the league.

Upwards & Onwards!

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 27w 8b 10lb 
for 4 wickets
46
351		        
Deepak Gairola lbw b S. Crossley 66 55 12 120.0 1
Jesant Halai ct b S. Crossley 97 98 15 98.98
Bhushan Brahmbhatt ct b A. Thomas 37 31 5 119.35
Ravi Kotecha b A. Thomas 37 31 2 119.35 1
Iqbal Anjum Not Out  53 34 7 1 155.88
Harish Janardhanan Not Out  15 11 136.36
R C  
Pradip Pandey  
Kishan Gordhandas  
Sajid Shafique Malik  
Shahmir Syed  

Old Cholmeleians II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J. Wilder9.014500.005.00
O. Jenn9.007400.008.22
A. Assegai6.004400.007.33
S. Crossley9.0064232.007.11
J. Zani3.002900.009.67
A. Thomas8.0060230.007.50

Old Cholmeleians II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
9w 10b  
for 9 wickets
19
163 (45.0 overs)		     
J. Zani ct D. gairola b H. Janardhan 11
T. Halstead ct R. Kotecha b S. Syed 18
A. Thomas ct b H. Janardhan 76
M. McCannes ct b H. Janardhan 18
O. Jenne b  H. Janardhan 3
R. McCannes b I. Anjum 0
P. Gilbert lbw R. Kotecha 0
R. Assgai Not Out  18
S. Crossley Run out  0
T. Walters Run out  0
J. Wilder Not Out  0

Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sajid Shafique Malik5.031000.002.00
Pradip Pandey4.011200.003.00
Kishan Gordhandas6.011600.002.67
Shahmir Syed6.0126126.004.33
Harish Janardhanan9.042345.752.56
R C6.003300.005.50
Iqbal Anjum6.0120120.003.33
Ravi Kotecha2.0015115.007.50