Scorecard

Dunstable III v Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI on Sat 18 Jun 2011 at 1:00pm
Match was Drawn 15 Points

Match report For the second time in two weeks the 4s had the oppo on the rack but could not delivery the knock out blow. Whereas the week before it was our own fault to a degree this time round the weather played a decisive part in proceedings reducing the second innings to 35 overs in which bowl the opposition out, not quite enough as it would happen.

With the weather looming large it was with some trepidation that the 4s made their way over to Dunstable where we were assured the pitch was in pretty good shape. It was as it happened with a tinge of green as to be expected. Chris again won a toss that he would rather have lost and elected to bat remembering the pitch as fairly true from an infamous mens Sunday fixture arranged a few years back by Harish against a bunch of 11 year olds. The opposition opening bowlers had contrasting styles the first being a tall bowler getting appreciable outswing with the other being a lower skiddier wicket to wicket bowler. Kamlesh survived a very close LBW shout to the latter only to be bowled round the back of his legs shortly after. Phil at the other end decided the cut shot was going to be his modus operandi this Saturday and promptly survived two chances slashed straight to gully. He was not so lucky the third time underedging through to the keeper. Ketan’s rich vain of form continued, his first scoring shot was a late cut that just about eluded gully but after that he never looked back and once again looked in fine touch with the Pièce de résistance being a booming six back down ground. Sanjay rarely looks out of sorts in the middle but it would be fair to say that he did not settle on this occasion and, after being frustrated by the pick of the opposition bowlers bowling sharpish deliveries out the back of his hand that reared up of a length he succumbed trying to hit his way out of trouble. As did PK who clearly had not been watching Sanj’s trials and once Ket fell for an excellent 57 the 4s were rocking at 73-5 in about the 20th over. Krishan and Chris were now at the crease and the plan evolved into seeing off the bowler who had been causing all the bother and try to pick up runs at the other end. As it happens this plan was extremely successful, so much so that the opposition did not get another wicket in the remainder of our innings. Krishan was patient and took time to play himself in occasionally launching himself at anything loose, Chris at the end was happiest blocking anything remotely threatening on the stumps and picking up singles into the gaps. We had got to the 39th over before the first of the rain interruptions came, this deprived us of 3 overs and so the when we went back out we were into the last 10 with Boom Boom on the sidelines itching to get out there. We got another 5 overs in before we had to come off again, this time to an absolute deluge which almost ended the match. Krishan ramped up the pace during this time moving himself to an unbeaten half century in the process, it was a top effort more so given the hole we were in when he strode to the crease. Tea was called for to let the pitch dry out and so the 4s finished on 170-5 from 44 overs which was lower than we had wanted given that we lost the final 9 overs where we could have accelerated the scoring.

Nevertheless it was something to bowl with and the second rain storm ensured that the pitch was not going to dry out for the second innings which could only assist the 4s effort. Roger our new / old ball specialist has a welcome habit of striking early and so it came to pass that the second delivery of the innings was chopped back onto the stumps from a very aggressive shot so early on. A couple of half chances then went down with a Sanjay half tracker being murdered in and out of mid-wickets hands and Roger just failing to hold onto to a caught and bowled which looped over him (the curse of the left hand was blamed). The refreshing approach of the opposition was aggressive in wanting to try and win it but this also created chances and once Sanj had asked for a 1st slip he produced an excellent delivery which PK held in that position. Sanj then induced the remaining opener to hit one miles in the air which Chris ran round to mid-on to hold. Events had moved on fairly quickly but the wet outfield still made the ball difficult to control and the opposition skipper and a young bat put on their best partnership climbing into anything that offered width. With the wickets having dried up we took the new ball and Veera immediately found the channel and settled into a nice grove. PK took a little longer to find his range but once he did he produced an outstanding cutter which ripped back through the gate to clean up their skipper. Veera having tied down the other end induced a rash swipe which rose high again for Chris to take an mid-on. Veera followed this up with an absolutely unplayable jaffa which ripped out middle stump. PK was also bowling nicely at the other end and when the left handed number 8 did not offer a shot to a straight one (perhaps assuming the LBW was unlikely from a right hander?) he was on his bike. So seven down and all was looking good bar the skies which had gotten very dark by at this stage. There were mutterings from the umpire about the light being bad and so Veera and PK were taken off out of necessity which was a shame as they were both bowling very well. Then to compound our misery the rain started to fall again which meant that the ball got very wet but also we had no choice but to keep bowling as quickly as possible to keep the game moving. There was a division 2 game on the main ground with panel umpires and so they were the barometer as to when we should come off but for some reason they didn’t even when it was chucking it down however once they eventually decided to we exited the field for our third rain break of the day. This lost us a further 3 overs still with 3 wickets to get. Sanjay who was having a field day as a bowler got an edge with Ket taking it well behind the pegs. Then with the penultimate ball of the penultimate over Sanj got a slower off-break to nip back through the gate to leave us with 7 balls to get 1 wicket. Sanj’s last ball was left alone by number 11 who will no doubt claim an excellent leave as it somehow passed the off stump by a coat of paint much to the consternation of the 4s. Veera produced a brilliant last over making sure the batsman had to play every delivery but it was not to be.

Another good display from the 4s and on a day where very few games went ahead we got ourselves 15 points so something to celebrate. Credit should also go to the opposition and particularly their captain who risked the wrath of their groundsman to keep the game going even when his side were in the mire; he could easily have called time on proceedings after the rain intervals had sodden the pitch but choose to let the game reach its conclusion which reflected very well on his good attitude.

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
170
(0.0 overs)		    
Philip Ridout Caught  H.Wright 4
Kamlesh Bharadia Bowled  L.Tommy 0
Ketan Shah Bowled  D.Woods 56 1
Sanjay Patnaik Bowled  T.Copult 1
Prakash Kannan Bowled  T.Copult 4 1
Krishan Chopra Not Out  53
Chris Benn Not Out  31 2
Miles Hencoe  
Sivasankar Sakthivel  
Veerapandiyan Rengasamy  
Roger Luck  

Dunstable III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
H.Wright7.0226126.003.71
L.Tommy7.0223123.003.29
T.Copult9.0426213.002.89
D.Woods8.0240140.005.00
J.Maediamid6.011700.002.83
S.Perera7.002600.003.71

Dunstable III Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
102 (0.0 overs)
P.Daniels Bowled  R.Luck 0
P.Trehan Caught  S.Patnaik (C.Benn) 12
I.Marshall Caught  S.Patnaik (P.Kannan) 2
I.Keogh Bowled  P.Kannan 25
J.Cooper Caught  V.Rengasamy (C.Benn) 24
L.Tommy Bowled  V.Rengasamy 2
J.Maediamid Bowled  S.Patnaik 17
T.Copult Lbw  P.Kannan 5
S.Perera Caught  S.Patnaik (K.Shah) 5
D.Woods Not Out  3
H.Wright Not Out  0

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Roger Luck9.0233133.003.67
Sanjay Patnaik12.033348.252.75
Veerapandiyan Rengasamy7.011929.502.71
Prakash Kannan5.021125.502.20
Chris Benn2.00300.001.50