Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI v Berkshire County Sports on Sat 13 May 2017 at 1:00 pm
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Won by 42 runs

Match report Crows certainly maintain winning start

League Match 2 began in uncertain weather conditions, against uncertain quality opponents and with an uncertain tea (no volunteers were forthcoming in the week). By the end of the match some things had been resolved. Their off spinner chucks*, Rob can open* and BCS don’t have a lot of batting technique*.
*to the naked eye

With a gloomy start and a damp pitch, one thing was certain however: a winning toss would really help the bowlers. Maintaining his tossing record, skipper of the day Colonel Cluett lost the toss and sheepishly asked who would like to be his batting partner. Everyone stepped back, and the man that was yet to arrive (Shak) was selected. But a last-minute change of plan - instigated by treacherous brother Jeff ably supported by turncoat Godbole - saw Rob Crook marching out side by side with Ant. And what a great decision, as Rob and Ant set a sound base from which came a stuttering launch. Ant thrust his staff upon the hallowed St. Sebs ground and uttered “thou shall not pass”. The Gandalf beard is coming along nicely Ant. At the other end Rob carried on from his opening duties with the 2s by peppering the boundaries despite the ball swinging, seaming, dipping and turning*. [*see match report vs. Sandhurst]. The opening partnership was coming along nicely when Rob chipped one to deeper mid-on for 34.

Fresh from a ton, Shak strode out at number three. A flashing 4 and a few runs later, Shak tried to drive an inswinging Yorker to extra cover and was castled. King Shak was deposed. However this brought the pretender to the crown, young Cartledge, to the crease. With an average nearing 1000000 this year, much was expected. And indeed he settled into a nice rhythm with Ant, who was now finding boundaries with aplomb. But Cartledge inexplicably missed a straight full toss from their skipper, and was vanquished to the changing room and left to ruminate on a batting average falling to somewhere near 999999. Brother Goblet Brundish got off the mark with an enormous six of which his father would be proud, but then came and went in the same fashion, leaving this correspondent convinced they had some weird Goblet agreement going on.

With the pitch playing the way it was, anything in excess of 150 was good, 175 challenging and 200 a great score. Ant departed nearing his 50, being expertly set up by the chucking off-spinner with a flat faster one. But it was a good innings and one the team really needed given the propensity of the following batsmen to gift their wickets. Will Avrili came, hit a six, and went. Haji came, hit two fours and went. Ravi came, hit a four, and went. Razz came, hit two reverse sweeps and a reverse hook and went (well, something like that - I was in the changing room for his innings.). Ali shepherded us to 174 and Jeff Cluett, the one-armed bandit, stayed in long enough to get that fourth batting point. 175-10 was a good score.

An excellent tea, freshly prepared by Nick and Debs, including clotted cream scones and a fruit platter was demolished and BCS went about their chase.

Ant and Rob, having opened the batting, then decided between them that they would hog the game by opening the bowling too. To be honest it was a surprise to *not* see one of them donning the wicket keeper gloves at the change of every over, just to keep everyone else out of the game. But the ploy worked, one wicket was taken. And had it not been for Shak and Ravi dropping catches, three wickets might have fallen. Jeff and Razz took the new ball and bowled tidily and BCS never looked like they were going to get an innings going. Jeff snagged the dangerous number 3 with devious outswing, tempting him into a foolish waft outside off, gobbled up by Tailsmen (not Talisman) Will. Ravi served up the outswing-outswing-inswing combo to trap their number 4, and Ali served up a full toss, such a dangerous delivery on this day, to get rid of the number 5 with a smart catch by skipper Ant. The left handed bowler Hussain launched Godbole for two huge sixes in an over, but was finally done by the extra (double) speed of Shak, nicking off to Brundish. Brundish had just replaced an injured Will behind the stumps. Will later returned to the pitch and launched himself at slip, getting fingertips to a screamer, and also chasing hard on the ground, casting much doubt on the veracity of the injury. It’s amazing what ibuprofen can do.

With the end nigh, when the team examined the technique of the remaining batsmen, the game was up. Ali gained another two wickets by bowling the ball cunningly full and straight, with each batsmen showing interesting footwork to be trapped LBW. Last rites were being read at this point and two run outs closed the match with eight overs remaining, BCS finishing on 133-10.

On to the big game next week, the A3095 ashes, with a 100% record to maintain. Up the Crows!


Captain: A Cluett
Keeper W. Avrili
Ducks: n/a
6's : Crook, Brundish, W Avrili,
Catches: Crook, A Cluett, Brundish, W Avrili, Anwar
Run Outs: A Cluett, Anwar
Baggy Greens: n/a

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3w 4lb 
for 10 wickets
7
175		        
Anthony Cluett b Ahmed 47 88 4 53.41 1 1
Robert Crook ct Chaudhry b. Khalid 34 41 5 1 82.93 1
Muhammad Shakeel Arshad b Hussain 7 7 1 100
Dan Cartledge b Butt 10 14 1 71.43
Mike Brundish b Butt 10 12 1 83.33 1
Will Avrili ct Mehmood b. Butt 17 29 1 58.62 1
Mehboob Alam ct Baig b Butt 15 9 2 166.67 1
Ravi Godbole ct c. Khalid b Ahmed 8 16 1 50.0
Mudassar Anwar not out not out 8 13 1 61.54 1
Razavullah Shaik b Akram 12 13 92.31
Jeff Cluett b Khalid 1

Berkshire County Sports Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
S. Hussain8.0314114.001.75
Z Akram9.0230130.003.33
U. Khalid7.3032216.004.27
Z. Ahmed12.0058229.004.83
B. Butt8.003749.254.62

Berkshire County Sports Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 10w 4b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
18
133 (37.0 overs)		     
Anjum ct Anwar b. A. Cluett 3
Baig ct Crook b. Shaik 5
Chaudhry ct Avrili b. J. Cluett 22
Ashraf lbw Godbole 23
Mehmood ct A. Cluett b. Anwar 10
Shazwad lbw Anwar 1
Hussain ct Brundish b. Arshad 22
Khalid lbw Anwar 1
Butt Not Out  24
Akram run out Alam 2
Ahmed run out A. Cluett 2

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Robert Crook4.01700.001.75
Anthony Cluett4.0210110.002.50
Jeff Cluett8.0127127.003.38
Razavullah Shaik5.0212112.002.40
Ravi Godbole3.0126126.008.67
Mudassar Anwar7.012438.003.43
Muhammad Shakeel Arshad6.0122122.003.67