Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Sandhurst v Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI on Sat 29 Apr 2017 at 1:00 pm
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Won by 85 runs

Match report 11 good men of Crowthorne vanquish auld enemy

The scene for the second weekend of pre-season friendly fixtures was an overcast trip to S*******t, a chance to get one over on the auld enemy early in the year, and set the tone for future Ashes battles. Not quite the full-bore-war-cry atmosphere of the traditional A3095 ashes fixture, but the rivalry was still there.

An enthusiastic team met for pre-match fielding practice, intimidating the watching S*******t throng with a mixture of humourous misfields and dropped catches. Stand-in skipper Brundish made his way to the middle for the toss. Keen to follow in his hero’s footsteps (Captain Cluett), he duly lost the toss, and CCWCC were asked to bat.

The familiar opening pair of Colonel Cluett and the Red Baroon strode to the middle, with Ant, now free from the burdens of captaincy, declaring to all in the changing room that he was ready to “go big”. Exactly one delivery later, with the ball safely nestled in the hands of first slip, in-form man Dan Cartledge was out to the middle.

Barron and Cartledge played well against the new ball, and reached a 50 partnership, with Dan especially looking comfortable. A pre-determined stroke to the weird- whirling-actioned bowler was his undoing, falling to a good catch at deep cover. That bought W. Avrili to the crease, showing his intent by hitting his first ball for 4. Unfortunately, this intent seemed impossible to repeat, as the second similar delivery looped to square leg to send Will back to the pavilion. Naga was the next man in, and with a textbook Crows collapse on the cards, the ship needed to be steadied. True to Crows heritage, this resistance only lasted a few deliveries, as Naga unfortunately defensively edged on to his stumps.

But, cometh the hour, cometh the Brundish….. With the team rocked by the flurry of wickets, both he and Barron played with a mixture of solid defensive strokes and brutal punishment of any ball that dared to stray off line or length. The 50 partnership came and went, then the 100. Barron followed his well-worn tradition of attending zero net sessions, and rocking up to the first game to hit a ton. After the milestone was reached, Barron was stumped trying to hit the ball back to Crowthorne, and with only 4 overs of the innings left, Crook was promoted to an unfamiliar position of pinch hitter. With the field spread, only a few singles were possible before getting out to a delivery that swung, seamed, gripped, stayed low and stuck in the pitch. Godbole came in to see the innings home, with Crows finishing on 221-6 and Captain Brundish with resolute and solid 70*.

A good standard tea followed, and the weather brightening for the second innings, a formidable opening bowling partnership of Sin and Raz were limbering up. Sin, having gone through an aggressive weight-loss programme over the winter, and to the surprise of his teammates, proudly declared that all the weight had been lost off his back! (we’re not sure what he was storing there….). And thus a new nickname was born.

With all this positivity, Sin “The Camel” Chandran started well with the ball, restricting the S*******t openers in combination with Raz. The breakthrough came with Raz getting the kingpin Adam Birch with a great delivery, pegging back his off stump. Sin then followed with the wicket of Panesar, confusing him with the full-ball for four, full-ball for six, short-ball-halfway-down-the-pitch combo. Comedy fielding was also on display, as a huge top edge allowed old-timers Nirav and Ravi stare at each other in the covers or five minutes, each wondering who would be the first to blink and actually claim the towering catch. As it was, Ravi blinked first and clung on to the steepler, effecting a forward roll to make it look more spectacular than it actually was.

The first change bowlers of Evergreen Godbole and Evergreener Nirav then came on to continue the good work of the openers. On an ideal surface for their brand of “very medium” paced bowling, Godbole was unlucky not to get a wicket, compounded by injuring his ageing calf muscle in the fifth over. In the future four over spells will only be allowed for Godbole. The similarly branded medium pacer Nirav claimed the wicket of Mills, getting prodigious in-swing throughout his fine, longer, eight over spell.

The spin twins of Cluett and Crook were then introduced (twins has rarely been such an abused word), with Crook managing to claim J Birch, having played well for his 50 despite having been dropped by Barron, The Camel and by Nirav. He finally fell thanks to a worldie of a catch at mid-on by Naga (new nickname needed, thinking caps on chaps). Regular wickets then fell to Cluett and Crook, with S*******t subsiding to 136 all out. Ashes celebrations were muted, acknowledgement of the fact that this was not a vintage S*******t side, but Barron did buy a round to honour his superb ton.

A good warm up game for Crows, who now look forward to league cricket starting next weekend.

Captain: M Brundish
Keeper: M Brundish
Ducks: A Cluett, N Bommanapalli
Catches: A Cluett, N Bommanapalli (2), R Godbole
Stumpings: M Brundish
Debut: n/a
Baggy Green: n/a
6's: Barron 2

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
5nb 7w 10b  
for 6 wickets
22
221		        
Richard Barron st Batchlor 100 12 2
Anthony Cluett ct Stone 0 1 0 1
Dan Cartledge ct Wiseman 35 6
Will Avrili ct Chesterman 4 1 1
Nagaraja Bommanapalli b Chesterman 0 1 0 2
Mike Brundish Not Out  70 6
Robert Crook ct Mills 3
Ravi Godbole Not Out  2 1
Razavullah Shaik  
Nirav Upadhyay  
Sinith Chandran  

Sandhurst Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
L Mills8.0147147.005.88
R Stone7.0123123.003.29
J Wiseman5.0130130.006.00
D Chesterman5.0028214.005.60
E Batchlor4.0017117.004.25
M Cladman6.002600.004.33
M Pharo4.003200.008.00

Sandhurst Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 4w 5b 3lb 
for 10 wickets
13
136 (34.0 overs)		     
A Birch +* b R Shaik 17 3
P Panesar b S Chandran 21 3
J Birch ct N Bommanapal b. Crook 51 9
W Grant ct R Godbole b. Chandran 3
L Mills b N Upadhyay 5
E Bachelor ct A Cluett b. S Chandran 8 1
D Chesterman ct N. Bommanapal b. R Crook 5
J Ash b A Cluett 10 1
M Clapham b R Crook 3
R Stone st St. M Brundish b. A Cluett 0
M Pharo Not Out  0

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sinith Chandran8.0135311.674.38
Razavullah Shaik5.0031131.006.20
Nirav Upadhyay8.0221121.002.63
Ravi Godbole5.001400.002.80
Anthony Cluett4.201829.004.15
Robert Crook4.01933.002.25