Scorecard

Harpenden IV v Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI on Sat 21 May 2011 at 1:00pm
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Won by 110 runs

Match report A combination of Chris giving out the wrong postcode for the ground and some general punctuality issues meant that on winning the toss and deciding to bat the skipper was faced with a question of who to open the batting with Kamlesh. Whilst in the process of putting on his own pads Chris noticed the lurking form of Boom Boom Siva who had spent the preceding week sending text messages not so subtlety hinting that he is the man who should be opening the batting in the 4s. A combination of reservations about opening the batting himself and being worn down by the Super Agent led to Chris relenting and giving Siv the nod to pad up. Chris and Roger then had a bet along the lines of how many minutes (both under 3 minutes) the innings would last and how many runs (Roger under 10 Chris over but not by a lot) the innings would produce.

The opposition opened the bowling with a lad who clearly had some pace but possibly was sacrificing accuracy to maximise his wheels. The outfield immediately showed itself to be lightening quick with the merest hint of contact with the bat racing to the boundary. Kam was steady at one end and the opposition were clearly encouraged by the frenzied swinging coming from the other end although at first it proved to be fruitful for the 4s particularly one over in which B-B slapped for three boundaries. Alas it was not to last and Siv was caught off a full toss which frankly a man of his calibre would have expected a maximum for. The score had moved on at a nice rate by this time but things settled down for as normal a cricket as you ever get from the 4s. Sathesh making his season debut was undone by a sharp ball that nipped back through the gate brining Sanjay the 4s run getter in chief. After surviving a close LBW he never looked back and got into his stride with his usual array of legside boundaries. Kamlesh was calmness personified at the other end and kept Sanjay company before being caught out on 25. PK came in and was getting into his grove when he holed out at deep mid-wicket to their spinner. Mike Pratt came in at number six and played a gem of an innings at a critical time. After playing himself in he was all over anything slightly short or off his stumps and made an excellent 37 during which time he was joined by Chris after Sanjay had departed for an outstanding 74 and Neil a less outstanding blob both undone by full ones from the oppositions stand out bowler. Chris and Mike’s partnership saw us from go from an under-par 170 to 210+ before both players were out LBW and bowled respectively. That brought in Sam and Andrew Shoreman who got us another 15 or so vital runs for the score. Sam was out bowled off the penultimate ball leaving Roger with a solitary delivery to boost his average... He connected sweetly with his trademark cleave down the ground only for the opposition skipper to pop up and take a well judged catch. 228 all out off of exactly 53 was definitely our most accomplished batting display of the current term led once again by Sanj the man but with good contributions in support all round.

The opposition opener had been sporting a Bangladesh top prior to the match and following his first two shots it was no secret that he would model his innings on Tamim Iqbal’s modus operandi. He blasted a legside boundary followed by one back over the bowlers head, Chris was immediately worried Roger told him not to worry and after delivering a couple of dot balls the clearly frustrated batsman smashed the last ball of the over back past Roger but into the welcome hands of the skipper at straight mid-off. Our scorer Joey heard their skipper muttering ruefully under his breath something about it not being IPL. The oppositions other opener appeared very strong on the off-side and had collected a couple of boundaries off of PK and probably thought he had another 4 on its way after thick edging a delivery but he reckoned without the gazelle reflexes of Boom Boom who had just moved into the gully and pulled off an extraordinary catch diving backwards as the ball was flying past him. The opposition and 4s alike were stunned that both openers had fallen to such catches and for once the 4s fielding levels maintained the standard that had been set. Roger added another wicket with Kamlesh juggling one at short-mid wicket and then PK picked his second pushing number 5 back and sneaking a sharp one through his defences. The opposition skipper was in now and he played well to try bring some semblance of order to proceedings but the score was 20-4 and the 4s were on a roll. Roger sensing it was his day bowled number 6 round the back of his legs much to the batsman's surprise come dismay. He then collected a caught and bowled with one hand which Sanjay later compared to a frog jumping up to catch a fly. His fifth wicket came when one exploded off the pitch giving Sanjay an easy catch at short-mid wicket. Seeing as we had some runs to play with Chris replaced PK in order indulge in some legspin with predictably mixed results. The opening delivery was a devilish ball that ragged off the now dusty pitch from outside leg past the bat and just past off-peg. Then there was a load of filth until the obliging number 9 popped one up to everybody’s favourite fielding position at short-mid wicket where Kamlesh held a dolly. All this time the opposition skipper was proving doggedly determined to get something out of the game and had played well until Roger talked him into a drive down the ground which found its way into Chris’ hands falling forward at mid-off, 6-57 represents Roger’s BBM for the 4s and was thoroughly deserved through his 17 overs of persistent swing and nagging length. With 9 down it appeared that neither Chris nor Roger was being greedy enough to gobble up the final wicket however both were trying hard for glory but Roger was getting knackered and Chris just wasn’t bowling that well. In the end it took a top catch from Mike P (who had kept imperiously all day) diving to take one that had popped up off a leggy and that was that.

As the score will tell you it was a comprehensive win and one that was down to an absolutely top effort from everyone in the side. It is very rare that all facets of the game come together in a match but they really did today. So an excellent team performance (no dropped catches!) led by Sanjay and Mike with the bat and Roger’s superb spell when it was our time to bowl. Happy days.

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
228
(0.0 overs)		    
Kamlesh Bharadia Caught  E.Peck 25 2
Sivasankar Sakthivel Caught  D.Fraser 20 1
Satheesh Kumar Bowled  B.Hussain 0
Sanjay Patnaik Lbw  J.Millhill 74 1
Prakash Kannan Caught  E.Peck 15
Michael Pratt Lbw  J.Millhill 37 1
Neil Dennison Bowled  J.Millhill 0
Chris Benn Bowled  J.Millhill 20 2
Sam Moore Bowled  J.Millhill 9
Andrew Shoreman Not Out  2
Roger Luck Caught  J.Millhill 0 1

Harpenden IV Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
D.Fraser9.0145145.005.00
B.Hussain6.0034134.005.67
E.Peck12.0152226.004.33
B.Hewlett5.002500.005.00
M.Fettes4.001900.004.75
J.Millhill11.021963.171.73
S.Cresswell6.012500.004.17

Harpenden IV Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
118 (0.0 overs)
I.Hussain Caught  R.Luck (C.Benn) 6
E.Peck Caught  P.Kannan (S.Sakthivel) 12
M.Fettes Caught  R.Luck (K.Bharadia) 0
M.Hughes Caught  R.Luck (C.Benn) 26
D.Fraser Bowled  P.Kannan 1
B.Hussain Bowled  R.Luck 5
S.Cresswell Caught  R.Luck (c&b) 4
B.Hewlett Caught  R.Luck (S.Patnaik) 11
B.Firmin Caught  C.Benn (K.Bharadia) 6
B.Luffman Not Out  11
J.Millhill Caught  C.Benn (M.Pratt) 16

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Roger Luck17.045769.503.35
Prakash Kannan8.031628.002.00
Chris Benn8.5037218.504.19