Scorecard

Holtwhites Trinibis II v Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI on Sat 17 Jul 2010 at 1:00pm
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Won by 6 wickets

Match report TM IV v. Holtwhites Trinibus II
17/07/2010
Played at Holtwhites

After last weeks blip (hopefully) the 4s got back to winning ways this Saturday gone with a mixed performance that eventually went our way thanks to some patient and some incendiary batting from our top order.

If the HT’s innings was one of three distinct three thirds, then the Fours showed a singular unity of purpose when batting to dispatch the team with the oldest fast bowler in the world, the slowest-scoring no.3, and the biggest-hitting tail. It was a time of contrasts…

Naturally on fielding the strongest batting line-up at his disposal for some time Chris won the toss and fielded; it has been the formula for success, I dare say, so why change it. The slope was familiar to those of us who remember playing at the Ridge (only the oldest members can now remember those far-off days, of course), as was the greenness of the track, though the fact that it was rock-hard lent a certain novelty to things.

Mr 10% and agent to the stars Siva Sakthivel bowled with pace and no little skill, being allowed to experiment by the openers who displayed admirable stolidity albeit a certain lack of adventure. The Sergeant at the other end probed away with a bit less pace but no less skill, and a war of attrition looked on the cards. Then Siva dropped one a little bit shorter, the no.2 essayed a flashing square cut, but the nick sped into the cupped hands of the sole slip, Mr Chairman. The Outreach director of the Totteridge branch of Alcoholics Anonymous was then pressed into service with the ball, and yorked no.1, so ‘a whole new game’ it surely was. The no.3 and skipper sought to lap everything, no matter how wide of off, to square leg, so having seven men between mid-wicket and the 45 degree line soon cut off all his scoring opportunities, but he did stay in long enough to slow the scoring rate down to a crawl.

Siva then cursed his luck as, on the day he sent the no.4’s middle stump cartwheeling, this was the one day when he didn’t have his personal photographer/cameraman in attendance. It did look good however. The middle order carnage continued as the SAS (Siva and Steve) partnership ran through ‘em, though the skipper lapped away, to reduce the HTs to 100 for 6.

When finally Captain Holts (I’m going out to bat, I may be some time) succumbed to Chris the penny dropped and a few shots were finally played. Then, a few more, with a few more added for good measure. No 8, a burly Boom-Boom lookalike, found and overflew the short legside boundary many many times. This just encouraged his fellow tailenders, one a wiry guy whose power belied his slim frame, the other a giant of a fellow who normally opened the bowling for the 1s; thus the third phase of the innings unfolded. Far too many catches went down at this period in the game although the high fielding moment was a direct hit by the Skipper from the boundary. 226-9 may still have been below par, but from 100-6 it was a massive recovery, encouraging a lot of muttering, dropped heads, shoulders and catches (about 10 at last count).

The Monarch of Mean himself, Steve, summed it up by offering 11-6-9-3 in his first 11 overs (no!) and then 5-0-63-1 in his last 5. One spell by the man from the home of Greggs, two incarnations; a proper bowler, and a purveyor of tempting pastry-based savoury products. Siva showed excellent stamina in returning the top figures of 21-4-64-3. Gravesy, bad luck well bowled, Chris, well bowled figures don’t reflect etc.


Then we came out to bat, and though the Big Fella got one through Ket’s defences it was a case of ‘my pies are bigger than yours’ as Sanjay carted him through the arc from long-on to square-leg every other ball, destroying his figures and their confidence. Gravesy again played the straight man to the man with perfect comic timing, and together the score raced up to somewhere in the 150s before a mini-collapse triggered a mini-alarm; good job we had that long batting line-up. I cannot speak too highly of this partnership which totally wilted HTs, in their contrasting styles. While Sanjay (86) will be disappointed not to get the ton his hand-eye co-ordination merited, he took us so close, and Gravesy (58) as a born-again opener, correct and calm, was the perfect Sid James to Sanj’s Hancock.

After the mini-collapse we then saw on object lesson in dealing with an awkward target from Abhilesh Mathew; just blow it away. Taking 19 from his first over he made short work of it all. Joe Coakley grew in confidence and on-drove them to distraction with his weight of shot. Though the 98-year-old legend that is Siggy Cragwell bowled with great control and accuracy, he couldn’t do it all, and a misplaced faith in ‘pace’ just hastened the end, with the big man going for 80 in 9.5, and that cheered Steve up no end. Abhilesh finished on 43 not out and Joe 20*.

And that is surely what it’s all about. Keep the Chairman happy, and keep on winning.

You’ve all done very well……..

Holtwhites Trinibis II Batting
226 for 9
Player name Runs
M.Davies Bowled  S.Lyall 26
P.Morley Caught  S.Sakthivel (Lyall) 30
M.Kashmiri Caught  C.Benn (Patnaik) 21
R.Hassan Bowled  S.Sakthivel 0
J.Wilson Caught  S.Sakthivel (c&b) 7
J.Bonner Stumped  S.Lyall (Mathew) 3
B.Bonner Caught  S.Lyall (c&b) 0
Z.Nasser Run out  Benn 41
K.Butt Caught  S.Lyall (Coakley) 39
P.Woodger Not Out  40
S.Cagwell Not Out  0

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sivasankar Sakthivel21.0464321.333.05
Jeremy Graves10.033300.003.30
Steve Lyall16.0672418.004.50
Chris Benn6.0031131.005.17

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Batting
229 for 4
Player Name RunsCatchesStumpingsRun outs
Jeremy Graves Caught  R.Hassan 58
Ketan Shah Bowled  P.Woodger 0
Sanjay Patnaik Caught  S.Cragwell 86 1
Rakesh Venugopal Caught  R.Hassan 12
Joe Coakley Not Out  20 1
Abhilash Mathew Not Out  43 1
Miles Hencoe  
Kamlesh Bharadia  
Chris Benn   1
Sivasankar Sakthivel   1
Steve Lyall   2

Holtwhites Trinibis II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
P.Woodger9.5180180.008.14
K.Butt6.012700.004.50
J.Bonner4.002000.005.00
S.Cragwell10.0132132.003.20
B.Bonner2.002200.0011.00
R.Hassan6.0043221.507.17