Scorecard

Eversholt II v Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI on Sat 31 Jul 2010 at 1:00pm
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Won By 4 Wickets

Match report TMIV v. Eversholt II
21/07/2010
Played at Eversholt

Another curious looking pitch and another excellent toss to lose meant that things started well for the 4s after a long hike up the M1 to the absurdly pleasant village location of Eversholt, matched also by their very friendly cricket team. The Sivamobile arrived a full seven minutes before start time which was vindication for Chris’ constant badgering throughout the week about the merits of starting cricket matches with a full complement.

The cricket pitch was next to the village hall that on this day was doubling up as a wedding venue for what appeared a happy occasion made up of predominantly French nationals. They seemed quite interested in our strange pastime which meant that we had a larger crowd watching the match than most county games. The worry was last time we played at the same time as a wedding was going, one of Steve’s more colourful exasperations at the concession of runs may have made it on to the wedding video; we needed to play well so as not to provoke Steve into turning this happy couple's video into something scripted by Tarantino.

Anyway, that aside, the opposition chose to bat. Siva and Jeremy Graves opened the bowling employing good lines and lengths working the batsman hard. Jeremy was bowling at what appeared the more lively end and was unlucky not to pick up a wicket when a fine glance down the legside couldn’t be held by the tumbling AB. Siva was the next man to come close when an absolute bullet could not be held in the gully by Neil despite an excellent effort. The first ten overs belonged to us on balance as we kept them quiet except for the odd 1s and 2s. We then went to sleep for some reason and started conceding boundaries through sloppy work in the field. It took a moment of fortune to wake us back up when Siva’s delivery on a length probably bounced a whole two inches off the floor before smacking into the helpless bat’s foot, very unlucky but no question it was out. After this we quickly got ourselves back in shape with a bowling change bringing Vivek on for Siva (9-0-44-1) who quickly picked up a legside catch off the gloves (well walked). Jeremy plugged away tenaciously for 12 overs (12-3-36-0) before making way for Steve who was probably just pipped at the post by Anderson in that he produced the second best spell of swing bowling in the country over the weekend. He earned the first of two LBWs early on with Vivek collecting a straightforward caught and bowled off one that got stuck in the pitch. Whilst this was going on the opening bat had passed 50 and was looking in good nick for a big one. Thankfully he lost his concentration momentarily and sent up a huge leading edge which Siva called for and somehow brilliantly caught one handed at the very last second. We were then “treated” to some text book driving from the opposition skipper and chairman which started to cause concern. Vivek (11-1-43-3) thankfully produced a jaffa to take the captain’s off-bail and Sanjay caught one diving forward at mid-wicket off Steve. Our Chairman collected his second LBW bringing us to the point in the innings that tends to make or break us. Concentration was the order of the day and despite the best efforts of the number 8 who made a breezy 23 we held ours admirably with Sanjay catching him off Steve before he finished his personal rout rearranging number 10’s furniture and finishing with a magnificent (11.1-1-35-6).

176 on a tricky pitch didn’t seem like it was going to be easy although we were sporting an in-form line up to tackle the total. Vivek did not last long unfortunately and after nearly taking the opening bowler’s foot clean off with a biff back down the ground he fell caught and bowled to him in his next over. Another early call to the crease for Sanjay batting at number 3 which is effectively the same as being an opener in the 4s. Sanjay made a mockery of what I remain convinced (more so after I batted) was a slow sticky pitch. He hit a 50 in the blink of an eye (need I repeat again this was all through the legside*) treating the opening bowler particularly contemptuously hitting three consecutive boundaries at one point. At 60-1 Sanj had hit 45 of those and it was distressing to seem him fall a few balls after reaching his half century caught behind off the bowler who as it turned out was the one who was most likely to deny us victory (returning excellent figures of 12-3-31-4). As usually Sargeant Slaughter was content to let the Tasmanian Devil go frantically about his business whilst he played the orthodox hand at the other end. He was joined by Rakesh batting at 4 and after a few lean weeks it turns out he had a point to prove. It was not long into his innings that he acquired the mandatory field placings of long on and off following a few lusty strikes down the ground. It was important for him to find other scoring areas which he did to great effect with some delightful drives through the covers and then at the end of our innings some elegant sweeps into the vacant fine leg area. Jeremy having played really nicely for 27 was out caught and bowled off a leading edge, the same bowler had Chris dismissed caught at short mid-wicket and AB fell soon after after skying another leading edge. Mani after his heroics last week did his best to steady the ship but was clean bowled the ball after cutting for 4. This left us at a precarious 120odd-6 still with over 50 runs required. Neil Dennison not for the first time this season showed a temperament in excess of his years and played really patiently recognising that overs was not a factor (we needed about 2 an over). After taking some time to regroup and perhaps sensing the tension radiating from our bench Rakesh decided to take matters into his own hands backing himself to clear the man at long off at the shorter of the two ends. He cleared him, not be a lot but enough, and then took a four off the next delivery to palpable relief from those on the sideline. The opening bowler was brought on so Neil cunningly edged him through the slips for 4 at which point I suspect the opposition realised it was not their day. Rakesh and Neil saw us home with relative ease in the end the former making a truly brilliant 77 not out and Neil an invaluable 9 not out.

It was an exceptional bowling and fielding effort backed up by a number of the batsman and has kept us top of the table heading into next weeks 1st vs. 2nd placed winner takes all (well, not really) match.

*Amendment on 03/08/2010. Sanjay has stated he will not score anymore runs on the legside for the rest of the season unless I clarify that he managed to score 3 boundaries on the offside (a whole 12 runs) in this particular knock. Normal service can now resume.

Eversholt II Batting
176 for 10
Player name Runs
J Garratt Lbw  Sakthivel 26
P McDuell Caught  (Sakthivel) Lyall 65
A Garratt Caught  (Mathew) Mallavarapu 12
M Ling Lbw  Lyall 9
R Garratt Caught  and bowled Mallavarapu 0
D Garratt Caught  (Patnaik) Lyall 16
P Litchfield Bowled  Mallavarapu 5
R Hyde Caught  (Patnaik) Lyall 23
A Page Lbw  Lyall 0
M Fuller Bowled  Lyall 9
R Girardi Not Out  5

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sivasankar Sakthivel9.0044144.004.89
Jeremy Graves12.033600.003.00
Vivek Mallavarapu11.0143314.333.91
Steve Lyall11.113565.833.13
Waqas Memon4.001300.003.25

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Batting
177 for 6
Player Name RunsCatchesStumpingsRun outs
Jeremy Graves Caught  McDuell 27
Vivek Mallavarapu Caught  Girardi 2 1
Sanjay Patnaik Caught  McDuell 50 2
Rakesh Venugopal Not Out  77
Chris Benn Caught  McDuell 2
Abhilash Mathew Caught  Fuller 0 1
Mani Periyasami Bowled  McDuell 4
Neil Dennison Not Out  9
Waqas Memon  
Sivasankar Sakthivel   1
Steve Lyall  

Eversholt II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
R Girardi9.0054154.006.00
P Litchfield6.022600.004.33
D Garratt5.012300.004.60
P McDuell12.033147.752.58
M Fuller6.0027127.004.50
J Garratt1.301100.007.33