Scorecard

Allenburys v Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI on Sat 25 Jul 2009 at 13:30
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Won by 3 Wickets

Match report TMCC VI v. Allenburys
At Allenburys on 25/07/09
Allenburys: 200-6 off 53.0 overs
TMCC: 203-7 off 46.4 overs
Match Won

Having just about got over the debacle of the previous weeks “pitch” the 4s were delighted to presented with what appeared to be an absolute belter in spite of the previous few days rain. Deciding there was unlikely to be any late afternoon rain and that the pitch would dry out we stuck ‘em in to ‘ave a bat.

The plan was simple, Big Tony Alderton on his way back from injury was going to bowl all day from one end and frustrate them into giving their wickets away, the remainder of us would plug away from the other end and try to reap the benefits of Tony’s parsimony. The plan worked so well that the mere threat of Tony’s emergence from the changing rooms (he was putting his contacts in for the first over) sent one of the openers into such a panic that he top edged Roger Luck’s third ball attempting an ill-advised sweep not befitting of an opening batsman, Neil Dennison gobbled the catch up from gully. Good start then; unfortunately Tony’s injury reoccurred in his third over forcing his retirement from proceedings, a cruel blow to all of us, especially the big man. Joe Coakley on his debut stepped up to finish the over and then proceeded to bowl an excellent spell which included picking up the other opening bat with a remarkable swinging delivery that took out middle stump bowled behind the batsmans legs. Roger and Joe did a solid job of keeping three and four quiet, with the former having a couple shelled off him. However, the pitch was a good one and further wickets were hard to come by. A possibility for a wicket was cruelly denied to Sanjay by Kris. I should explain further, Sanjay was at first slip a whole three metres (being generous) away from where Kris was keeping. The ball dribbled to Sanjay off Roger’s bowling and spotting the bat out of his crease Sanj hooned the ball at the stumps and when I say stumps I mean the back of Kris’ legs (although I suppose he’s not that short). Suffice to say the big man went down like a sack of spuds with Sanjay protesting he had got in the way of a legitimate shy at the timbers, the rest of us stood there in hysterics/disbelief at the pantomime of it all. Sanjay came on for Joe (7.4-1-20-1) and then Chris brought himself on for Roger (12-0-42-1). Contrasting styles were offered by the in batsman with one orthodox as you like driving through the off at any given chance, the other all bottom hand slog. Bottom hand got to 50 exactly but Chris and Sanj kept him honest with little to get under and eventually frustration got the better of him and he tried to biff the skip to cow. He reckoned without Jeremy Book who had been stalking the boundary out there waiting to pounce on such a shot. Jez took a cracker of a catch running at full pace to get under the high swirling ball. With wickets in hand there was an anticipation that the oppo would put their foot on the gas at some point after the 30th over but the push never came with Allenburys content to take ones and twos and the odd boundary. This lack of urgency probably cost them the game. The only glimmer of hitting out came from the number three who we had managed to put down twice early on and had moved past 50. He couldn’t shake his tendency to play with a straight bat though and having punched Sanjay through mid-off a few times he fell to the same shot holing out to the skipper for a well made 76. Chris immediately picked the new left hander for a blob with Kris Waters collecting the edge behind the pegs. Still no onslaught despite only being five down and so as we entered the dieing embers of the first innings Mr. Waters playing in his last game for TMs before his permanent move to Canada signalled to the skipper that he quite fancied taking the last over in honour of his final appearance. Kris did a wonderful impression of a Canadian seal pup sensing a weakness in his captain for sentimentality and so (with some reservation) he was told to lose his wicket keeping gear and limber up. Chris explained to the opposition skipper the reason for this late, bizarre bowling change who, to his credit was very understanding of the whole affair stating “fine by me so long as he doesn’t get me out”. Oh dear.

Let me run you through the over….

Ball 1 – Wide
Ball 2 – Wide (not even close)
Ball 3 – Wide (no danger of troubling the pitch)
Ball 4 – Wi…. Oh no, the bat felt sorry about this whole charade and stepped out to hit the ball and took a single
Ball 5 – Wi… no what… Wicket, I mean WICKET!!!! Their skipper, caught and bowled by Waters whose earlier impression of a seal gave way to his impression of a Canadian polar bear as he bolted round the pitch looking for one and all to celebrate woth (Kit Hutcheson later recalled with some terror the sight of wild-eyed Waters bearing down on him).

Who knows what happened for the remainder of the over but the scorebook tells us that 6 runs were conceded so Water’s figures read an impressive 1-0-6-1. Sanjay bowled well for 17-2-58-1 with the Skip returning figures of 14-0-61-2.

So, 201 to win off a pitch offering little menace thus far. Kamlesh fell leg before early to the pick of the oppositions bowling, a clever left handed swing bowler. Kris, determined to make a point in his last innings dug in with Jeremy at number three. The pair scored fluently enough keeping us well abreast of the run rate milking regular boundaries. Kris got a life from a horrible drop at cover and Jeremy survived a harder caught and bowled. The two of them at this stage looked like they see us all the way home with little drama and so it was a great shame to see Jezza heading back to the pavilion after being run out for a brilliant 57. Kris, was being gifted some leaving presents by the oppo having been dropped again in the run out and then three fielders stood rooted to the spot watching a top edge lolop between them. He finally fell edging one to slip in the 35th over with the score at nearly the 130 mark. Sanjay came in at number 4 and proceeded to hit three quick boundaries to get the momentum shifting again. After Kris’ departure he was joined by Joe who didn’t take long to get his eye in depositing a huge six over the bowlers head early on. Sanjay (22) and Joe (23) were just getting on top of things when they both fell within an over of each other, Kit stepped in and continued the got work taking advantage of the good track and large outfield in his quick fire 14. Once Kit departed Robbie McDougal and Chris joined each other with 19 from 3 needed. A tight over followed leaving 15 from 2, although at this stage two of the opposition fielders got in an argument with one physically threatening the other which was all good as far as we were concerned. More hard running and Robbie hitting a four off the last ball of the penultimate over left six from six off the last. Two run twos from the first two(?) deliveries alleviated any nerves and despite one dot ball a driven four through past mid-off handed the fours a hard earned victory with ten men and an excellent leaving present for Kris.

Tony having had to sit their whole innings and then most of ours was still with us and padded up ready to go into battle should it come to that, a true legend.

Allenburys Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
200 (0.0 overs)
C.Kerr Caught  R.Luck 0
G.Mitchell Bowled  J.Coakley 10
B.Stephenson Caught  S.Patnaik 76
K.Lunniss Caught  C.Benn 50
P.Griffiths  
G.Griffiths Caught  C.Benn 0
A.Wheatley Caught  K.Waters 4
M.Miller Not Out  1
   
   
   

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Roger Luck12.0042142.003.50
Tony Alderton2.20600.002.57
Joe Coakley7.4120120.002.61
Sanjay Patnaik17.0258158.003.41
Chris Benn14.0061230.504.36
Kristian Waters1.00616.006.00

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club 4th XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
203
(0.0 overs)		    
Kamlesh Bharadia Lbw  3
Kristian Waters Caught  39 2
Jeremy Book Run out  57 1
Sanjay Patnaik Caught  22
Joe Coakley Caught  23
Kit Hutcheson Bowled  14
Neil Dennison Bowled  1 1
Rob McDougall Not Out  15
Chris Benn Not Out  10 1
Roger Luck  
Tony Alderton  

Allenburys Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
L.Stark14.0157228.504.07
G.Griffiths7.012800.004.00
K.Lunniss9.012600.002.89
P.Griffiths10.0043143.004.30
M.Miller7.0043314.336.14