Scorecard

St Margaretsbury II v Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sat 15 Aug 2009 at 13:30
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Won by 6 wickets

Match report ...brought to you this week by Club Captain, Alex Book...

"There's no way we'll ever get these". That was the comment made by glass-half-full skipper Matt Crutchlow as we trudged off after chasing leather 256 times in the first innings.

But the general consensus was that, although we had not been brilliant in the field, we hadn't been that bad, there was a lightning outfield which made an otherwise reasonably large ground seem very small indeed, and the wicket was doing the square root of eff all.

In the field, Rahil in particular had reason to be disappointed with his figures - having toiled for 21 overs, and provided only the rarest of bad balls, his 21-4-87-0 didn't reflect his bowling, which at times was simply too good for the batter to nick. He was well supported by the other bowlers but as the St Margaretsbury batsmen chanced their arms the ball flew with terrible regularity to the fences.

Their opener would have been cursing his lack of patience as he looked set to score big, instead charging at Stef Da Re only to end up stumped by stand-in keeper Jeremy Book. The number 3 had been called up from the 3rd XI and although he never looked entirely in control of things, made 87, alongside an accomplished number 4 who took the game to us, rarely looked in trouble and finished not out, also in the 80's. A declaration one over early looked a token gesture at the time, but arguably could have made a difference to the final outcome.

The response from TMCC was emphatic. There's not much more to say about Will Hughes' 144* than that it was pretty much chanceless, stunningly elegant and simply one of the best innings I've had the privilege to watch. Aided by the flat wicket and greasy outfield, he timed the bowlers to all parts of the ground, never trying to hit too hard, with the ball flying off the middle of bat time after time. Shortly after reaching his hundred he started limping, and with a runner on the pitch for the final 10 overs, he was clearly in huge discomfort, slumping over his bat in between deliveries, finally falling to the ground as he hit the winning shot, an inevitably middled drive over mid-off. He was carried off, wincing and making all sorts of unseemly noises, and received the plaudits of his team mates and opposition players alike.

But of course Will couldn't have done this alone, and as ever it is partnerships rather than individual innings that win games. The partnership of over 200 (surely a record for TMCC that will stand for some time) between Will and Hilton Nathanson was superb, Hilton playing the more aggressive foil to Will's Gower-esque approach. He too punished anything loose, especially short outside off-stump, and made an excellent 86. The pair also ran extremely well - possibly too well, leaving both gasping and calling for fairly regular drinks (and Hilton calling for about 17 new pairs of inners, the old ones always coming back sopping wet). But between them the rate, which at times peaked at close to 8, came steadily down, so that when Hilton was finally caught behind (allowing him to make it to U2 - just), the required rate was below 5, and although not a formality, the final runs came with 9 balls to spare.

Brilliant stuff from both of them, and as a result the 3s remain in touch with the promotion spots. A critical game on Saturday against promotion rivals Hatch End could make all the difference.

St Margaretsbury II Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 3 wickets
0
256 (0.0 overs)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Zakuan Chowdhury9.023900.004.33
Rahil Shezad21.048700.004.14
Hilton Nathanson6.0123123.003.83
Stefano Da Re6.0040140.006.67
Shahrokh Navaee10.0157157.005.70

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
257
(0.0 overs)		    
Matt Crutchlow Lbw  5
Will Hughes Not Out  144
Hilton Nathanson Caught  86
Pablo Martin Caught  1
Shahrokh Navaee Bowled  3
Kit Hutcheson Not Out  4
Rahil Shezad  
Alex Book  
Jeremy Book  
Zakuan Chowdhury  
Stefano Da Re  

St Margaretsbury II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

  • Umpire :
    Bob Chandler
  • Scorer :