Scorecard

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI v Hertford III on Sat 11 Jun 2011 at 1:00pm
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Lost by 2 wickets

Match report On a soggy green Rowley Lane wicket, the most important moment of the game is always likely to be the one 20 minutes or so before it starts. So when the Hertford III skipper, low on confidence after 6 losses out of 6, called correctly, his spirits rose accordingly as he took to the field.

The going was pretty tough, although you wouldn't have known it from the 12 runs taken off said skipper's first over by Jeremy Book. But the Hertford bowlers fairly quickly tightened up and Jeremy was on his way back after the other opener nipped one through his defences and tickled the top of off. Hilton again showed his patience and class, batting determinedly against uneven bounce with first Pete and then Alex, taking the score gradually towards 60-odd from the first 20.

When Alex fell playing an ill-advised pull to one that kept low, neither of the middle-order enforcers of Krishan (a late call-up, thanks go to him for being able to make it at short notice) and PK were able to stay with Hilton. Which set the stage perfectly for Mike Pratt to reprise his opener's mindset and rebuild. He did so beautifully, with the partnership looking bang on track until Hilton (53) attempted to cut a sharp off-break from a young spinner who ultimately finished with the frankly ludicrous figures of 9-5-8-4.

Yasir came and went, but Mike (52) found support in the form of Charlie Low who, having been dropped at wide long on second ball, then batted more sensibly through the majority of the remaining overs, before beginning to open up and push the score up through the batting point barriers. The innings ultimately fell short of the extra 2 points 185 would have offered, but 182 was significantly more than we had hoped for or, if we're honest, really needed on this track with this bowling.

As you've probably already seen from the outcome, things didn't go as well as we wanted in the field. Good early work included a fabulous underarm direct hit from Pete Leslie, a great ball from Charlie to get rid of their stylish young number 3 and a sharp reaction catch at very short cover by Alex. But after that we simply made the game too hard for ourselves with too many costly dropped catches, too many freebie four-balls and too many fielding fumbles.

Despite that, and as a result of some good spells from Ollie and Yasir, plus a great second spell from Charlie, we were still in with a shout as the game approached its climax. A clean-hitting number 7 was batting well and correctly, and in hindsight (aka The Captain's Nemesis) some better fields that covered his strengths in the V might have helped the cause more. Two overs left and they needed 7, we needed 2 wickets. Alex brought mid-on up, and the number 10 duly cleared it. A scampered 2 and we went into the last over level. Three dot balls passed with pressure rising, until the number 7 finally pierced the field, to much jubilation from relegation candidates Hertford.

Charlie almost literally bowled his arse off (it's ok, he's now got two weeks to recover...) and claimed a very well deserved 5-for? 6-for? Can't even remember but it was quite a few, capping his astonishing early season performance. The defeat still leaves us well in touch in 5th place, but we simply have to put this performance in the field behind us and get back to all the positives from previous weeks.

Two more wins in the bag for when Charlie returns please.

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
182
(0.0 overs)		    
Jeremy Book Bowled  13
Peter Leslie Caught  10 1
Hilton Nathanson Bowled  53
Alex Book Bowled  9 1
Krishan Chopra Caught  4
Prakash Kannan Caught  4
Michael Pratt Bowled  52
Yasir Khan Caught  0
Charles Low Stumped  26
Manu Gopal Bowled  1
Oliver Ridout Not Out  1

Hertford III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Hertford III Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
186 (0.0 overs)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Charles Low21.4580613.333.69
Manu Gopal2.01400.002.00
Prakash Kannan5.002200.004.40
Yasir Khan13.0162162.004.77
Oliver Ridout6.011400.002.33