Scorecard

Little Berkhampstead Sahibs 2XI v St Albans Cricket Club 5XI on Sat 27 May 2023 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 21 runs

Match report Notable Performance: Ahmed 51* and 3-29

The 5s finally got their maiden league campaign underway on Saturday playing at Little Berkhamsted, with skipper Cocks choosing to bat first predominantly on the basis that half of his team were still stuck in the traffic caused by “Slam Dunk Festival” resulting in a 25 minute drive taking closer to 2hrs.

However, both Curtis Sr and Crisp ensured there would be no panic in the ranks opening the batting and getting off to a very strong start, with 37 runs coming from the first 6. Curtis Sr was then out caught by a ‘worldie’ one hand grab, suggesting a level of fielding ability from Little Berkhamsted that they struggled to live up to from that moment on. Curtis Jr came to the crease but due to a seizing lower back (they don’t make youth like they used to) he was bowled for 1. Hugo Thomas came to the crease and built a solid partnership with Crisp taking us up to 87-2 from 16 before a flurry of wickets saw Crisp, Thomas and J Berry depart in quick succession leaving the 5s rocking on 96-5 at drinks.

Sage words from the skipper about batting the overs grinding the oppo down etc. were taken firmly on board by debutant Ahmed, who showed a steady hand on the tiller getting his eye firmly in before hitting a range of excellent boundary scoring shots as broadly speaking his partners perished all around him for fairly low scores. We managed to feed Ahmed enough partners though for him to reach his maiden 50 and drag us to a respectable 188 total, which we felt heading into tea was defendable.

And ladies and gentleman what a tea! In scenes probably last seen in 2019 a full spread was provided, two enormous lasagnes, garlic bread, doughnuts, cake, sandwiches, tropical fruits and more put the pressure on St Albans to pull something out of the hat for the return fixture later in the year.

Somewhat weighed down by food the 5s then took the field and after a distinctly ropey start (29-0 off 3) the openers Tom Bentley and Tom Hadden found the line and didn’t move from it, pegging the Sahibs back to 40-0 off 10. More accuracy followed with the first change of Coffer and Ahmed with Ahmed removing one off the openers in the 18th with the batting side reaching 90-1 at drinks, slightly behind the run rate but with plenty of batsman left in the shed (or so one might have thought).

After drinks the 5s again worked excellently in the field to restrict runs and the pressure told in the 24th with Sahib’s other opener being removed again by Ahmed who appeared to have settled the MOTM debate early.

Once the second wicket fell it became relatively apparent that the Sahibs were a bowling team with a handy top order rather than depth all the way down. What this resulted in was an attempt from their number 3 to farm the strike and hit boundaries whilst protecting his partners. St Albans however were very good at defending the boundaries and taking opportunities to pick up wickets when bowling at the newer batsmen, resulting in batsman 4-9 scoring 0,1,2,1,0 and 0 respectively while their number 3 battled gamely to 64. They ended up batting out their overs well short of the overall target and the 5s took victory!

Riley Curtis, Hadden and Coffer picked up a wicket each with Ahmed taking 3 as well as a super direct hit run out, J Berry also bowled seam very economically in a key period of the game which took the run rate beyond anything gettable.

As intimated MOTM surely has to be I Ahmed with excellent contributions in every phase of the game. We look forward to hosting early Div 11C table toppers Bayford and Hertford II at the Sandpit next weekend and hopefully another big win!


St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 25w 10b 6lb 
for 10 wickets
42
188		        
Iain Curtis ct J. Tancock 26
Toby Crisp ct M. Marley 34
Riley Curtis b M. Marley 1
Hugo Thomas ct M. Marley 17
Imran Ahmed Not Out  51
Jude Berry ct M. Marley 0
Nick Berry Run out  2
Tom Cocks Run out  5
Tom Hadden b M. Baig 1
Tom Bentley ct M. Baig 4
Jamie Coffer ct M. Baig 7

Little Berkhampstead Sahibs 2XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J. Tancock8.0138138.004.75
C. Ruff2.002600.0013.00
S. Chaudhry8.012200.002.75
M. Marley8.012245.502.75
M. Awais6.003600.006.00
M. Baig6.202538.333.95

Little Berkhampstead Sahibs 2XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
14w 9b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
24
167 (40.0 overs)		     
M. Awais ct I. Ahmed 40
J. Tancock b I. Ahmed 34
S. Chaudhry Not Out  64
T. Foxen b I. Ahmed 0
M. Stritter b R. Curtis 1
M. Marley Run out  2
M. Baig Run out  1
C. Ruff ct J. Coffer 0
J. French b T. Hadden 0
G. Peries Not Out  1
C. Hogan  

St Albans Cricket Club 5XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Tom Bentley8.015100.006.38
Tom Hadden7.0115115.002.14
Jamie Coffer8.0139139.004.88
Imran Ahmed8.012939.673.63
Jude Berry6.011000.001.67
Riley Curtis3.0013113.004.33