Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI v Woodley on Sat 03 Jun 2017 at 1:00 pm
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Won by 7 wickets

Match report INSPIRED CROWS CRUSH INSIPID WOODLEY

After suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of champions West Reading the previous week, the Crows had an excellent opportunity to get their season back on track with a home fixture against league cellar-dwellers Woodley on a fine, sunny June day. Nothing could be taken for granted however, as this was the same mercurial Woodley outfit that had beaten them by 8 wickets the last time they played.

At some grounds they say to look up, not down, when deciding whether to bat or bowl. This is not true of St Sebastian’s. As Crows skipper Outram strode to the middle, resplendent in his meticulously cleaned whites, the verdant outfield was more akin to the heavy rough of a golf course than a cricket outfield. The wicket too was looking even grassier than usual, so Nick had no hesitation in sticking the opposition into bat when the coin toss landed in his favour.

Still, the sun was shining beautifully down on both opening batsmen as they marched out to begin proceedings, so if they could get through the first 10 overs unscathed it may turn into a tough, tiring afternoon for the Crows’ bowlers and fielders. As it turned out though, they couldn’t even last 10 balls unscathed.

Jaffa was to set the tone for the Crows in the very first over with a signature wicket maiden, sending the Woodley number 1 back to the hutch third ball via the safe hands of Shak at slip. Raz was then to follow this up by striking with only his second ball, clean bowling the other Woodley opener. It was at this point that Shak proclaimed Woodley would be 60 all out, and no one was disagreeing with him at 2 for 2 after 8 deliveries.

Things certainly did not get easier for Woodley, with the Crows’ opening bowlers producing their best spells of the season to date. Cluett was excellent with his line and length, and consistently induced plays and misses, edges and false shots with his away-movement. Shaik, employing significantly more pace, was doing likewise with his in-movement. Despite a dropped catch at gully from a sharp chance off the latter’s bowling, it seemed that it would only be a matter of time until the next breakthrough. Indeed, after a brief flurry of runs through the off side it was another case of Shaik, rattle and bowled for Raz, as his extra pace burst through the defense of the number 3. Not to be outdone, Jaffa employed exactly the opposite strategy, cleverly deceiving the Woodley number 5 with an off-cutter to dislodge the bails and leave Woodley reeling at 32-4.

Outram was not in the mood for letting up the pressure, calling on the experienced pair of Arshad and Godbole to turn the screw next as the opening bowlers began to tire. He has also placed great emphasis on the importance of ground fielding since taking over the reigns this season, and he was pleased to see “Earl” Chandran in particular charging around in support of his bowlers. A Woodley batsman was even heard to utter the words- “Watch out for him, he’s a good fielder”, referring to “The Earl”. Long-time spectators from previous seasons could be forgiven for their surprise upon hearing this.

Even “The Earl” could do nothing though about a couple of lusty blows that the Woodley number 6 dealt to the first over of the veteran Godbole, including a powerful maximum over the sight screen that was a rare highlight for Woodley. The evergreen Ravi would quickly adjust his length slightly shorter, to tighten things up once again, and it wasn’t long before he snaffled an identikit pair of scalps. Nibbling the ball away just enough, he presented “The Talisman” with a couple of catches behind the stumps, the second of which seemed to genuinely astonish the poor number 8, who stood, baffled, for an age before disconsolately trudging off to find some dark corner of the pavilion to sulk in.

Avrili was to stay in the thick of the action at the other end too. With a typical cheeky chirp to the established Woodley batsman, letting him know that Shak was too good for him, he was surprised to see the batsman turn around to him and admit that he was probably right. In fact the Woodley number 6 seemed to be listening more to the fielders’ chat than he was concentrating on his own game, and when the fielders commented on Sinith’s favoured “back of the hand job” when returning the ball to the keeper, he was chuckling to himself for a good while, up until the very next ball when Shak bowled a cracking delivery to catch his outside edge and give Avrili his third catch in quick succession.

7 down at this point, all that was left for the Crows was to snuff out what little hope remained to Woodley. Outram turned to “The Earl” and debutant Rajesh to wrap things up, and even they probably didn’t think it would happen quite as quickly as it did. Just 2.4 overs were required between them to conclude matters, with Sinith inducing a couple of false shots that flew to his bowling counterpart Rajesh at mid on. Rajesh took a wicket of his own too, completing an impressive solitary first over for the 1s by clean bowling the number 7. Such was the dominance of the home team’s bowlers throughout this innings that the Crows could even afford to drop 4 or 5 catches along the way (the only blemish), and still sweep aside the opposition batting line up for just 57 runs in 24.4 overs.

So, after a quick turnaround the Crows had 15 overs before the scheduled tea time to try to knock off the 58 target with a session to spare. The Red Barron set about doing this with gusto, blasting his second delivery…straight into the hands of the bowler for a disappointing duck. Form horse Arshad was the man at the other end, but all he could do was look on as number 3 Dan Cartledge was given out LBW for 1, a bizarre decision by the previously unmoveable umpire to a very leg side-looking delivery.

To be fair to Woodley they were bowling well, in particular K Ali from the Tennis Court End, and they were even causing Shak some problems. As is his wont, Arshad kept attacking though, right up until his dismissal for a breezy 28 off just 21 deliveries, clean bowled by an Ali slower ball. In truth there was never likely to be any hope of defending 57 successfully though, even with the Crows 3 down for 35, especially with the redoubtable Outram determined to see his team home. This is exactly what the captain did, in partnership with Haji, with Nick finishing on 13* and Haji on 10*.

Pausing to speak to reporters after the close of proceedings, Outram was full of praise for his bowlers in particular:

“I genuinely believe we have the best attack in the league, with its variety, consistency and depth,” he gushed. “It seemed as though we created a chance every other ball, and we actually could have had them all out for 35 or 40. We go again next week against Welford Park, and I expect us to sharpen up on our catching in particular to give these superb bowlers the support they deserve.”

A fantastic team performance with everyone contributing, the Crows’ target of finishing in the top 5 this season moves a significant step closer.

Woodley Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1w 1b  
for 10 wickets
2
57 (24.4 overs)		     
F. Ahmed ct  Ct. Arshad b. J Cluett 0
J. Goddard b  R Shaik 2
Z. Raja b  R Shaik 13
A. Pandey ct  Ct. W Avrili b. R Godbole 12
A. Kapila b  J Cluett 4
K. Ali ct  Ct. W.Avrili MS Arshad 17
Koushik b  R Nagaram 5
Jag ct  Ct. W Avrili b. R Godbole 0
Moubhen ct  Ct. R Nagaram b. S Chandran 0
Naveed A. Not Out  0
A. Khaliq ct  Ct. R Nagaram b. S. Chandran 2

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jeff Cluett8.031728.502.13
Razavullah Shaik6.021527.502.50
Muhammad Shakeel Arshad5.02919.001.80
Ravi Godbole3.011125.503.67
Sinith Chandran1.40321.501.80
Rajesh Nagaram1.00111.001.00

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
2w 1b 3lb 
for 3 wickets
6
58		        
Richard Barron ct  A. Khaliq 0 2 0
Muhammad Shakeel Arshad b  K. Ali 28 21 5 133.33 1
Dan Cartledge lbw  K. Ali 1 13 7.69
Nick Outram Not Out  13 16 81.25
Mehboob Alam Not Out  10 12 1 83.33
Will Avrili   3
Rajesh Nagaram   2
Ravi Godbole  
Razavullah Shaik  
Jeff Cluett  
Sinith Chandran  

Woodley Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
A. Khaliq4.0123123.005.75
K. Ali5.111829.003.48
Jag2.001300.006.50