Scorecard

Luton Town & Indians II v Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI on Sat 02 Jun 2012 at 1.00pm
Berkhamsted Cricket Club Lost by 1 wicket

Match report This week saw the Berkhamsted youngsters travel to Luton to take on the top of the league. With the prospect of building on our previous performances the smell of a bid scalp lingered in the air. This was soon wafted away as the pitch looked like a 5th day test match wicket in the searing heat of Mumbai. Indeed Sir Geoffrey could have fitted his fist let alone his keys in the numerous cracks (more like crevices) that decorated a hard, dry wicket. The very hospitable Luton won the toss and immediately inserted Berkhamtsed. No doubt having a plethora of spin bowling helped their captain make his decision.
After a slow start and the loss of Gareth, Jez and Gus started to build the Berkhamsted innings. Some fine stroke play from the New Zealander was unfortunately halted when he was caught in the deep going for a big heave hoe which had devastating impact at Herford the previous week. Presumably Gus didn’t spot the slightly bigger boundary this week. Jez got the deceptive straight one from Panesar, reminiscent of his brothers 5 wicket haul against the Aussies. This bought Smith and Foster to the wicket to rebuild the innings. After surviving some good spin bowling which produced more turn and bounce than a street dance act on Britain’s Got Talent the pair put on a 70 run partnership and were well set to push on when the opposition umpire had other ideas. I’ve seen some bad decisions in my time but this was right up there. For the second time this season the oppo commented “If it wasn’t a league match we would have called you back.” Salt and open wound spring to mind. In fairness I think they were being genuine and their umpire did even it out with another shocker to remove their captain LBW with a ball that hit his armpit. Anyway the skipper finished with a 50 and Berko got a respectable 174 off their allotted 53 overs.
After a tight start by Ben and Joe, the pressure was built and we snagged two early wickets. However Luton’s big number 4 started to assert his authority and runs began to leak freely. Then with the spin twins of Barnett and Schaw working in tandem and exploiting the pitch there was a sudden collapse from the opposition and we got 5 quick wickets. Unfortunately their dangerman was still at the crease and he gave Luton hope as he continued to steer the home side towards victory.
After bringing their number 11 to the crease with 30 runs still to get, hope came flooding back to Berkhamsted. Alas it was not to be as a couple of missed opportunities meant we missed out on our first league win. To be fair their number 4 batted superbly to finish on 107 not out and is clearly playing beneath himself in Div 4.
Chins up however as another close match is more evidence that we can seriously compete in this league. Next up Hatfield Hyde.

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2w 10b 2lb 
for 9 wickets
14
174		        
Jez O'Neill Lbw  27 2 1 1
Gareth Preedy Lbw  0 1
Gus Schaw Caught  30 5 1
Luke O'Dair Lbw  0
David Smith Caught  53 4 1
Douglas Foster Lbw  33 5 1
Joshua Roberts Lbw  0
Huw Barnett Caught  5
Ben Beard Caught  8 1
Joseph Atkins Not Out  3
Andy Blood Not Out  1

Luton Town & Indians II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Luton Town & Indians II Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
7w 3b 2lb 
for 9 wickets
12
177 (0.0 overs)		     
Naik run out O'Neil 5
Ahmed ct Preedy b Beard 9
Aujila b Schaw 14
Bashir Not Out  109
Katechia lbw Schaw 0
Chauman ct Foster b Schaw 6
Modak b Barnett 0
Mahmood ct Schaw b Barnett 0
Panesar ct D Smith b Barnett 1
Varma ct O'Neil b Schaw 19
Zafir Not Out  2

Berkhamsted Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Beard7.0123123.003.29
Joseph Atkins9.022300.002.56
Gus Schaw14.3257414.253.93
Andy Blood4.012300.005.75
Huw Barnett5.0032310.676.40
Douglas Foster3.001400.004.67

  • Umpire :
    Richard
  • Scorer :
    Sarah