Scorecard

Met Police Bushey III v Radlett CC 5th XI on Sat 12 Aug 2006 at 13:00
Radlett CC Won 9 wickets

Match report This week’s match was hosted at the splendid facility of Met Police. The grounds and facilities must be the envy of all the clubs around. On arriving there was a lavish route to the changing rooms. Also a full size mosaic of a cricketer in the shower room was visible.

Radlett won the toss and Vikram inserted Met Police in as the wicket was slightly damp and conditions were windy. This seems to be the one of the first grounds with a decent scorebox on their 2nd pitch which also boasted covers to protect the strip. We were in for a cricketing treat.

Matt Barrett opened the bowling with Vikram while the rain was spitting. Matt early on showed prodigious pace which I doubt exists in the division and sharp accuracy. His first over he took a wicket with a yorker edged to Kailash who swept the ball for a lovely low catch but was a difficult chance. Scoreboard was 1 for 1. Vikram bowling into the wind found some quicker balls intertwined with length balls which took Met Police scoring their first run after facing 4 overs of his variety. The rhythm was back and the time away from injury had made no difference to the quality deliveries seen last year. Meanwhile Matt was wreaking havoc for the batters with his sheer pace beating the bat for 4 to 5 deliveries each over. Matt was just bowling too well for the opposition and after 7 overs was slightly straining.

The tempo of the batting was suspect as Radlett’s bowlers had contained them effortlessly after 16 overs score was 24 and they showed no stroke play at all. What followed were Keerthi’s overs to their surprise the medical man of the 5’s really put in pace, bounce and genuine swing into deliveries. The next 10 overs mustered only 27 runs. Vikram bowled through the gate to the left hander by an accurate yorker. Keerthi got a decision of lbw to have them 3 down. Vikram managed to bowl the other opener by a ball that lifted and took both bails top of middle stump. This opener really had played at snails pace with 11 scored off 25 overs. Keerthi finished a magnificent spell of 10 overs conceding just 14 runs with a handful of maidens. He is the one to watch in future games. Vikram had now bowled 13 overs and was bowling what could be described as classical line and length medium pace bowling with devastating accuracy. After Richard Saunders bowling this effort reads as the longest sustained piece of economical bowling in the side. Fielders were joyous in runs were not being made but Met Police are also culprits in not making it a more exciting game by playing defensive back foot cricket which made proceedings reach boredom level.

Bowlers toiled successfully and convincingly to the surprise of the Met. Ramesh Swaminathan joined the party as he opened up his account with a loose over. But his 2nd over was altogether proper off spin variety. He took a wicket by clean bowling the batter. After 40 overs the score had pegged to 80 and Ramesh had taken another wicket with Tony taking a lovely catch at silly mid off. The fields were attacking and the batsman didn’t really find a run and were not skilful enough to show any penetration of the bowling.

Vikram ended his mammoth spell of 21 overs (probably the longest unchanged spell in 5’s cricket) with 7 maidens and some awful wide ball decisions to put Radlett into an amazingly strong position. The wicket suited batting as it was drying and bowling should have been easy to play as it was a true bounce and a good strip. A shame for Met Police to meet their match in Radlett’s quartet of quality bowlers. Fielding had been really good all day 1 drop catch and a couple of half chances made no difference to the result. Alexander, Tony, Nick and Ramesh had cut off runs and saved boundaries too.

Lloyd Patternott made his senior cricket debut bowling nicely and tightly and the return of Matt saw him take a wicket with his first ball. Keerthi took a great catch at short point to finish off Met Police innings after 48.1 overs they managed 106 runs. Their innings consisted of only 6 boundaries. Radlett had made a good effort of restricting the target by a good 100 runs.

Radlett opened the batting with the mercurial Mike Dexter and the gigantic hitting youth Vishal. The Met’s bowling was a lot better than the batting but they tended to loose accuracy far too often for our batsmen. We too started tentatively and run rate was about 2 for 12 overs. Seeing the openers off was key to achieving minimum wicket loss. Vishal was out early to a skier for 7 which introduced the 14 year old youngster Lloyd. He has a lot of potential and showed on the day that he can rally with the big boys. Mike the experienced partner took control with lovely cuts and drives and at one stage accelerated the innings by hitting 3 consecutive 4’s in the 21st over. Lloyd by this time had found the timing and played aggressively and technically sound. This was the best batting seen of a colt this season in senior cricket and is the one to watch in the future. Mike produced an innings of authority and cleaned away the bad balls in disdain as bowling was just not up there. Lloyd hit a 48 and Mike 44 both unbeaten to set up a huge win of 9 wickets.

After Matt’s bowling display last week, Radlett have not looked back. The performance was of a high standard by all and showed the sheer dominance of the team in this division. The win gave Radlett confirmation of promotion to division 11. Now 26 points are required from 2 matches left to seal the title. Man of the Match: Vikram Rajput (4 for 32 off 21 overs 7 maidens including 3 wicket maidens) for a convincing display of highly economical and accurate bowling to reduce the chasing target by half and take the game away from Met Police very early in the match. A captain’s performance was due and it was delivered to the joy of fellow players.

Go on the 5’s !

Radlett CC 5th XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 1 wickets
0
107
(0.0 overs)		    
Mike Dexter Not Out  44
Vishal Patel Caught  7
Lloyd Paternott Not Out  48
Tony Peck   1
Kailash Morjaria   2
Ramesh Swaminathan   1
Matt Barrett   1
Keerthi Sirimanne   1
Ramesh Swaminathan  
Matt Barrett  
Keerthi Sirimanne  

Met Police Bushey III Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Met Police Bushey III Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
106 (0.0 overs)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Radlett CC 5th XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Matt Barrett8.111527.501.84
Vikram Rajput21.073248.001.52
Keerthi Sirimanne10.0514114.001.40
Ramesh Swaminathan6.022237.333.67
Lloyd Paternott3.00700.002.33