Scorecard

St Albans IV v Berkhamsted Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sat 21 Jul 2018 at 1pm
Berkhamsted Cricket Club Lost by 1 run

Match report A case of so near yet so far. We arrived at Verulam School in good time to find everyone peering at the pitch which looked patchy and with a few cracks appearing on a good length. Looked like a good pitch to bowl on first. Oppo skipper seemed very reluctant to toss which suited stand in skipper Mark as with 10 minutes to go we were still missing a keeper and a bowler. Eventually as the clock ticked towards 1pm Mark lost the toss and St Albans decided to have a bat. Our opening pair Dipesh and Ollie bowled really well but only got one wicket to show for it with the St Albans opener seizing on anything overpitched and driving with venom through the offside. Berko field became more defensive and first change bowlers John and Josh were unable to make an impression even though John beat the bat on several occasions. With the no 3 Khan looking very impressive at drinks we were fearing having to chase 200 but after drinks the introduction of spin from both ends slowed the scoring rate and ended the good second wicket partnership. Ollie Todd was very impressive with his flight and Mark picked up 3 wickets - the fightback was on. Also full credit to an outstanding piece of sportsmanship from St Albans no 4 Alfie Button who was run out superbly by a direct throw from John, given not out by their umpire and then walked as he knew he was a long way short. How many would do that? We took a couple more wickets - 2 good catches from John and Oscar and we went into tea pretty pleased with our efforts.

On a hot day and very bumpy outfield and against a decent batting team this was easily our most disciplined bowling/fielding of the season - very few extras and only 2 dropped catches - 3 if you count the one OC didn't get off the ground for! Niloy was superb behind the sticks - only 2 byes on a very uneven pitch and outfield was outstanding. Well done to all the bowlers - good tight bowling on a very hot day.

After an excellent alfresco tea we began our attack on 180 to win. Jacob and Ollie Todd built a good opening stand and we raced to 66 off 13 overs - the game looked in the bag but the introduction of spin again proved to be our downfall as the run rate dried to a trickle. We needed to accelerate but no-one was able to stay in and make that vital 40/50 knock that would have surely won the game. In the end OC and an injured Mark needed 22 off the last 3 overs and when OC top edged one to fine leg the game was more or less up. The last over started with us needing 12 to win. The first ball went for 4 - could we do it? Sadly not, the St Albans bowler held his nerve and needing 4 to win off the last ball we could only run a 2, Mark run out coming back for the third to tie the game.

One last point - these 80 over games are taking a ridiculous amount of time to finish. They invariably start late, no-one seems able to last 30 minutes without a drink and in this match as in many others the opposition had a 5 minute conference between every over to decide the fielding positions. On average the games are taking 45-60 minutes longer than they should and we end up getting back to the club at 8pm. No wonder some younger players find this tedious. We drop down to 6th in the league, back at BCC for a home game next week.

St Albans IV Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 2w 2b 5lb 
for 7 wickets
10
179 (40.0 overs)		     
Knill-Jones lbw  b M Lewarne 45
Nisar lbw  Campbell 5
Khan ct  Chambers b M Lewarne 69
Button Run out  9
Rush b  M Lewarne 0
K Ralfe ct  Koutalides b Campbell 16
Mulvaney Not Out  14
Arif ct  Dale b Vyas 1
Winfield Not Out  2
   
   

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Dipesh Vyas8.0129129.003.63
Ian Campbell8.0133216.504.13
Josh Maddison4.002300.005.75
John Koutalides7.002800.004.00
Mark Lewarne8.0132310.674.00
Oliver Todd5.002600.005.20

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 8w 5b 9lb 
for 9 wickets
23
178		        
Jacob Lewarne Caught  28
Oliver Todd Lbw  26
Oscar Dale Caught  13 1
Stephen Parnell Stumped  21
Andy Chambers Caught  12
John Koutalides Bowled  16
Josh Maddison Caught  14
Ian Campbell Caught  10
Mark Lewarne Run out  12
Niloy Mitra Not Out  3
Dipesh Vyas  

St Albans IV Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
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