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Scorecard

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Sunday XI v Thames Valley Ramblers on Sun 17 Jul 2011 at 2:00
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Won by 44 runs

Match report Crows won the toss and elected to bat in a rain reduced 20 over match.

A superb all-round team effort by The Crows led to a comfortable 44-run Victory over Thames Valley Ramblers on Sunday at a Rain-drenched New Ground.

Due to heavy and persistent overnight rain, many pessimists and even some optimists would have thought no play would be possible, however due to the wicket being covered and the enthusiasm of both sets of players to get a game on, the respective Captains agreed that the match should be shortened to 20 over per side in order to maximize the chances of a full game.

Crows Skipper Dave Shaw won the toss and decided to bat, just as the heavens opened again and livened up the now uncovered pitch. Opening batmen Rich Hester (bumped up the order to act as a pinch hitter) and young pretender Will Avrili were like lambs to the proverbial slaughter both falling for ducks in the opening 2 overs to leave the Crows reeling at 0-2. First to go was Hester who was banged to rights by Ramblers Skipper Lester of the first ball of the match. Hester Bowled Lester 0. Cue the usual disagreements over whether that counts as a Platinum Duck, a Diamond Duck, a golden duck or a bottle of Toilet Duck. Whichever of these it actually is, the fact remains that it was a Duck, a blob, a zilch and Hester is now hot on the coattails of Jimmy who is attempting to runaway with the trophy.

Avrili perished in more unfortunate and far less pun-worthy circumstances than Hester, top edging one to short fine leg. However this was to be the start of the Ramblers downfall as in-form Dan Partridge was joined at the crease by Rich “The Maroon” Baroon. This pair put on 47 between them in contrasting styles before Barron was gunned down by a bandit at 3 O’clock. Shortly after, Partridge ran a dirty overthrow to bring up his 25 and trudged off towards the plentiful tea. With 2 new batsmen at the crease the Ramblers should have taken advantage but Skipper Shaw and Ant Avrili (complete with brand spanking new bat) had other ideas, both reaching 25 with little fuss. Avrili in particular playing some technically correct shots whilst Shaw was employing his usual more direct approach.

With Avrili back on the pavilion veranda, telling everyone how good his new bat is, the Ramblers misery was pressed home even further as Colin Ingram was now at the crease, seeing how far he could hit the ball with his new bat. The Kahuna is dead. Long live the New Kahuna. SMACK! Two big 6’s into the woods!

At the other end, Sam “Hassle” Roffey was run out without using much of the scorer’s pencil lead and then Jimmy Carson came into to try and press home his advantage in the Duck prize. He almost succeeded 2nd ball but his mistimed shot looped tantalizingly over the head of the fielder and he was able to scramble a run. The Crows finished on 143 in 20 overs on a pitch that was drying and getting easier to bat on. Heaven knows how many more runs could have been scored if skipper Shaw had unleashed Phil Brown and his evil Henchman “The Frenzy” onto the Ramblers bowling attack.

With Brown champing at the bit to get the ball in his hand, the Crows took the field with great enthusiasm, knowing they would have to bowl and field well to triumph. Brown and Barron opened the bowling and kept it tight with both men picking up early wickets to put the Crows on the front foot (Something Hester should have done whilst batting earlier)

With the Ramblers in disarray, Shaw summonsed up MacKenzie from the boundary to hammer home Crows dominance. After a tidy couple of overs the Ramblers batsmen decided that they needed to attack The Frenzy’s bowling. Number 5 Batsman, Bhatt was already treading the thin blue line when he wielded his bat and the ball flew past Hester at wide first slip. As everyone looked to the boundary, Hester somehow had reached out his long arm and taken a stunning catch that defied physics, biology and many other School science subjects. As his team-mates formed a lynch mob to congratulate him on the catch the batsman trudged off not quite believing Hester’s version of events. At this point the Crows team were urging Shaw to throw the ball to Hester to showcase his bowling skills.

Buyoed by 2 catches already to his name. Hester came steaming in from “The Kilometre End” – coincidentally almost as long as his run-up. In an incredible spell he had Pearce caught at deep extra cover by Barron, before dismissing Lester who hit the ball approx 2 miles in the air before Hester Apprehended the ball on it’s return to the Earth’s atmosphere for a great caught & bowled. In the space of 1 match Hester had put himself in the frame for Fielder of the year, Sunday Bowler of the Year and the Duck Prize.

By now the Thames Valley Ramblers were more like the Bay City Rollers as they could scarcely lay bat on ball to Thames Valley Police’s finest in Hester or Thames Valley Police’s Most wanted in MacKenzie.

With Overs running out as quickly as wickets, Shaw played his last master stroke by bringing on Ingram and Partridge to bemuse and befuddle the tailenders. Both picked up a wicket and the Ramblers weren’t able to get them away. With 1 wicket remaining and the batsmen unable to correctly guess which way the ball was moving they attempted a run to Brown who calmly threw the ball into Will Avrili who capped an immaculate performance behind the stumps by taking off the bails with the batsman well short of his crease.

The Crows had played almost the perfect game and everyone in the team had made a positive contribution with either bat, ball, fielding, Shortbread making or pure enthusiasm. The Sunday Crows are now unbeaten since 8th May and look forward to taking on 6-a-side Champs and T20 Chumps Crown Wood next Sunday.

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Sunday XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
143		        
Richard Hester b W Lester 0 3
Will Avrili ct b. A Brown 0 1
Dan Partridge Not Out  25
Richard Barron ct Wkt Keeper b. A Brown 21 2
David Shaw Not Out  27
Ant Avrili Not Out  25
Sam Roffey Run out  3
Colin Ingram Not Out  26
James Carson Not Out  6
Phil Brown   1
Brendon MacKenzie  

Thames Valley Ramblers Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
W Lester4.0121121.005.25
A Brown4.0025212.506.25
N Bhatt4.002600.006.50
U Yunis2.001900.009.50
H Yunis2.002200.0011.00
R Ali4.002800.007.00

Thames Valley Ramblers Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
99 (0.0 overs)		     
U Yunis Not Out  34
R Ali lbw R Barron 8
T Wood b P Brown 0
D Dempster ct R Hester b. P Brown 1
N Bhatt ct R Hester b. B MacKenzie 5
P Smith ct R Barron b. C Ingram 8
P Pearce ct R Barron b. R Hester 18
W Lester ct &b R Hester 11
A Brown run out (P Brown / W Avrili) 11
H Yunis b D Partridge 0
   

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Crowthorne Sunday XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Phil Brown4.0120210.005.00
Richard Barron4.0125125.006.25
Brendon MacKenzie4.0016116.004.00
Colin Ingram3.0021121.007.00
Richard Hester2.001125.505.50
Dan Partridge1.30414.002.67