Scorecard

Totteridge Milhillians v Radlett CC 2nd XI on Sat 12 Jun 2010 at 1.00
Radlett CC Won by 40 runs

Match report
The TMCC ground has a considerable downward slope all the way from the pavilion, across the square, and on to the far mid-wicket/deep cover boundary. The pitch for the match had been used earlier in the season, and repaired for re-use. The grass was cut short, but what remained looked a little green. (The groundsman had watered the pitch earlier in the week, and rolled it on the morning of the match to bring the water to the surface, expecting that it would dry out before the match began.) TMCC won the toss, and asked RCC to bat first. RCC's innings began in broken sunshine, but the small clouds became more numerous, and finally they joined up for the rest of the day. However, the light was good for the whole match.

Gwilym Jones and Nick Fielden opened the RCC innings against very lively fast bowling by TMCC's opening pair, Hassan Mahmoud and Sean O'Brien. The combination of the new ball, the slope and the slightly damp wicket made for rather tricky batting conditions, helping the ball to move around appreciably. The initial scoring rate was quite slow, and in over 10, with 25 runs on the board, Gwilym attempted to cut a ball which did not come up as expected. Instead of connecting with the meat of the bat, he got a thin bottom edge, and was well caught by TMCC's wicket-keeper, Stewart Wernham. Andre Sharma came in at No 3, but in over 12, a ball came across him down the hill, and he played on off an inside edge. RCC 27 – 2. David Robinson joined Nick, but in the next over Nick also played on, again from an inside edge to a ball which came in sharply down the hill. RCC 31 – 3.

John Barr arrived at the crease, but David Robinson was bowled by the last ball of over 15 with the RCC score 36 – 4. Haydn Smith replaced him, and the score moved to 48 – 4 at the end of over 17. TMCC made their first bowling change, John drove at the first ball from Justin Lefort, didn't lift the ball enough to clear mid-on's hands, and was caught. RCC 48 – 5, and things were looking distinctly unpromising. Lee Fortis came in next and saw the over out, hitting a four along the way. Haydn nicked the first ball of over 19 well wide of first slip's right ankle, but instead of a bonus boundary, found that the half chance was very well taken, and RCC were 52 – 6.

Deon Carolus and Lee then scored quickly for a few overs, reaching 85 – 6 by the end of over 22. O'Brien replaced Mahmoud for over 23, conceded one run, then bowled Deon (20) with the final ball of the over. Rob Crocker kept Lee company for four overs, departing LBW to O'Brien in over 27 with the score on 107 - 8. Josh Charles resisted for a further six overs while Lee continued to accumulate runs, using his characteristic upper-cut late cut on several balls outside his off stump, and including one drive for six over the sight screen and out of the ground. Last man Stuart Browne (17) deployed his usual off drive very effectively, hitting four boundaries from 16 balls before his fifth boundary attempt was well caught by a leaping deep mid-off. The final RCC score was 146 all out, from 36.4 overs.

Extras were W 1, NB 7, B 5, LB 2. Lee finished with 42 not out from 48 balls in 76 minutes, a great effort. He and his partners had tripled the RCC total from its value when he began to bat. Later events show that this was sufficient to turn the game. It is possible that the pitch began to ease towards the end of the RCC innings, but again, later events suggest that it was still not a featherbed. At tea, RCC had two batting bonus points for reaching 140. TMCC, having won the toss and put RCC in, received no bowling bonus points for the first five RCC wickets, so had only five bowling bonus points for the second set of RCC wickets. Since the RCC innings had not used up the full quota of 53 overs, TMCC were offered the balance of 16 overs (53 – 37) to add to their original allowance of 47 overs. They decided to take the extra overs, extending the maximum length of their innings to 63 overs. From the boundary, RCC's prospects did not look very good.

Dean Carolus and Stuart Browne opened the bowling for RCC with encouraging zip, and a maiden over each. The first ball of Deon's next over clean bowled TMCC's No 1, and Stuart trapped TMCC's No 3 LBW in over 6, giving a score of 12 – 2. The total reached 19 – 2 after 10 overs, but Josh Charles caught Shaun O'Brien in Deon's next over to make the score 21 – 3. For over 16, Stuart gave way to Rob Crocker, who began by bowling three maidens. In the third of these maidens, Rob bowled TMCC's No 5 and No 6 batsmen with successive balls, but No 7 prevented the hat-trick. At the half-way point of the innings, TMCC's score of 39 – 5 was worse than RCC's 48 – 5, and it was clear that the pitch had not become totally placid.

Nick Fielden brought Haydn Smith on to replace Deon for over 23, and was rewarded when TMCC's No 7 presented him with a catch from a mis-hit drive off the last ball of the over. The TMCC score of 52 – 6 was then exactly the same as RCC's. TMCC's Nos 4 and 8 then staged a mini revival, reaching 89 – 6 before Stuart came back into the attack from the opposite end to his first spell for over 35. He dismissed TMCC's dangerous No 4, Justin Lefort, LBW during that wicket maiden, and had No 9 caught by Nick Fielden in over 39 to give 99 – 8. Deon replaced Haydn for over 40, bowling No 10 with the last ball. 105 – 9. Vishal Bhimyani, TMCC's useful No 8, tried to straight drive the first ball of Deon's next over He achieved height but not distance. After spending a long time in the air, the ball came down to where Deon was waiting. He took the catch calmly, just before he was mobbed by the relieved congratulations of the rest of the team. Deon now has the possibility of completing a hat-trick with his first ball of the return match on 14.8.2010.

Extras for the innings were W 1, NB 4, B 4, LB 4. RCC got 30 points for the win, but TMCC did not receive any batting bonus points to add to their five bowling bonus points, since their score did not reach the trigger value of 140 runs. In the event, TMCC's tea-time decision to take the additional 16 overs on offer was more helpful for RCC, because it allowed RCC to concentrate on taking the remaining TMCC wickets without worrying that they might run out of overs before being able to finish the job. Given the small score which they were defending, RCC's team must be congratulated for their great spirit and positive approach during the second innings.


WM
16.6.2010

Radlett CC 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
146
(0.0 overs)		    
Gwilym Jones Caught  Stewart Wernham Bowled Shaun O'Brien 14
Nick Fielden Bowled  Hassan Mahmoud 12 2
Andre Sharma Bowled  Shaun O'Brien 0
David Robinson Bowled  Hassan Mahmoud 4
John Barr Caught  X Bowled Justin Lefort 9
Haydn Smith Caught  Stephen Murdoch Bowled Hassan Mahmoud 4
Lee Fortis Not Out  42
Deon Carolus Bowled  Shaun O'Brien 20 1
Robbie Crocker Lbw  Shaun O'Brien 5
Joshua Charles Bowled  Shaun O'Brien 4 1
Stuart Browne Caught  Hassan Mahmoud Bowled Shaun O'Brien 17

Totteridge Milhillians Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Hassan Mahmoud11.0334311.333.09
Shaun O'Brien15.434367.172.74
Justin Lefort9.0059159.006.56
Stephen Murdoch1.00300.003.00

Totteridge Milhillians Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
106 (0.0 overs)
Bikky Sandeep Bowled  Deon Carolus 0
Stephen Murdoch Lbw  Stuart Browne 8
Shaun O'Brien * Caught  Josh Charles Bowled Deon Carolus 9
Justin Lefort Lbw  Stuart Browne 44
Matt Crutchley Bowled  Rob Crocker 1
Pasha Ali Bowled  Rob Crocker 0
Greg Cruder Caught  Nick Fielden Bowled Haydn Smith 1
Vishal Bhimyani Caught  and bowled Deon Carolus 26
Sanjay Patel Caught  Nick Fielden Bowled Stuart Browne 0
Hassan Mahmoud Bowled  Deon Carolus 4
Stewart Wernham + Not Out  0

Radlett CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Deon Carolus12.132446.001.97
Stuart Browne11.032137.001.91
Robbie Crocker12.0436218.003.00
Haydn Smith6.0017117.002.83

  • Umpire :
    Panel
  • Scorer :
    Bill Marshall