Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club

Scorecard

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI v Sulhamstead & Ufton on Sat 01 Jul 2017 at 1:00 pm
Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club Lost by 124 runs

Match report SUPER SULLY GO BALLISTIC, CROWTHORNE ARE ATROCIOUS

Following a superb win the previous week against rivals Peppard, the Crows were in a buoyant mood going into their biggest challenge of the season so far- the visit of league leaders Sulhampstead. The home side were further boosted by the return of leading run scorer Shak, and captain Outram. A couple of injury drop-outs aside, all omens were good…

Outram immediately picked up where he had left off, losing the toss against new Sully captain Briggs. The youngster ignored the cloud cover and the green wicket in electing to bat first, displaying the confidence he has in their batting depth and ability to bowl a side out. The Crows were pretty pleased too though, as their favoured strategy of bowling the oppo out cheaply and getting home for dinner was still on.

Once again it was Jaffa and Razza opening the bowling, however it looked at one stage as if they would have to bowl even more tightly than usual, as with 1.00 p.m. approaching only 6 Crows players were anywhere be seen for the “mandatory” fielding practice. This shambolic start was to set the tone for the day unfortunately, and is something Crows have to improve on if they are to achieve their primary objective of finishing in the top half of the Division.

Cluett eventually was able to begin proceedings, almost inevitably sending down two textbook maidens on the bounce to keep a lid on the right-handed Sully opener. Shaik was in a different mood at the other end though, struggling with his wrist position which affected his radar significantly. This resulted in quite a few wides, but when he got it right it was too good for the Sully lefty who wafted at one going across him, gifting Shak a routine catch at first slip. Jeff did get his reward a couple of overs later, removing the Sully number 3 with an eponymous jaffa, sending down an off-cutter that pitched on the left-hander’s leg stump and moved sharply away, clipping the top of off. Another of his slower balls would send the muscle-bound number 4 back to the pavilion too, inducing a feather through to keeper Brundish. At this stage Sully were 30-3 and the Crows were getting that familiar feeling of having a team right where they want them.

First and second change bowlers Earl Chandran and Colonel Cluett have been in fine form all season, taking wickets regularly and backing up the opening bowlers brilliantly. This time around though Sin struggled to contain the big hitting number 5, who was in no mood to hang about right from the off, signaling his intent with a chunky straight six. This prompted Nick to call for the extra pace of Arshad immediately, and this proved to be a very good call as a sharp bouncer hurried the batsman, flying off his top glove to the well-positioned Jaffa at short fine leg. Shak was again to strike immediately after drinks, removing the watchful opening batsman who had hung around for a well-fought 28 with another quick delivery that he could only steer to Cartledge at gully. DC was able to cling onto this one, making amends for a couple of sharp chances that he had spilled before that. This made the score 87-5 after 23.1 overs, and the Crows were well on top.

Alas, captain Briggs was again to be a thorn in the side of the Crows, taking advantage of the life he was given by one of the aforementioned DC drops to frustrate the CCWCC attack, ending up on a well-paced 67* that knitted the second half of the Sully innings together. He was backed up by a couple of hard-hitting lower-middle order biffers, who counter-attacked excellently. The first of these was Seward, who hit a quick-fire 28 before being castled by the veteran Godbole. Like a chess Grand Master, Ravi “Kasparov” had been brought into the attack to outthink the aggressive batsmen which he duly did, setting them up beautifully and using all of his experience to post outstanding figures of 2-20 off 5 overs. His two wickets brought Palmer to the crease, and the number 9 was the second hitter to damage the Crows’ hopes. He blasted a powerful 37 including 2 big sixes off the returning Jaffa before finally being bowled by Shak in the 45th over. The Crows were ultimately disappointed with the 218-8 that Sully posted, frustrated by some drops (not just from DC, there were others!) and some more wayward bowling than usual at times, and not taking advantage of the advantageous position they had forced at around the halfway mark.

When it comes to the Crows’ reply, the less said the better. It should suffice to summarise that, when they found themselves 10-4 after 7 overs, any hopes of a dramatic run chase were pretty firmly squashed. Two men exceeded 20 in the innings, with a steady 22 from Mikey and a punchy 26* from Ravi. All out for a chastening 94 from just 31.1 overs, the Crows did not deserve anything from the game having been comprehensively outplayed and outclassed by the Sully bowling attack. Macdonald was their standout performer on the day, crushing the Crows top order and finishing with superb figures of 8.1-3-4-6.

A subdued Outram faced the press afterwards, admitting that Sulhampstead were well worth their 124 run win on the day-

“We put ourselves in good position with some excellent bowling early on, but once again our catching and fielding put us right up against it. In tough batting conditions we didn’t get any luck with everything seeming to go to hand, but we can’t have any complaints about the result. It’s a big game next week against Ruislip now, and I fully expect us to bounce back- this team is full of character and it’s time for the lads to show it once again.”


Captain: N Outram
Keeper: M Brundish
Ducks: Trigwell, J Cluett
Catches:Carltedge, Outram, Arshad, Brundish, J Cluett
6's n/a
Run outs: n/a


Sulhamstead & Ufton Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
14w 5b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
20
218 (45.0 overs)		     
R Brown ct  Arshad 28
C Warne ct  Shaik 6
S Belcher b  J Cluett 8
M Thompson ct  J Cluett 1
S Aruna ct  Arshad 27
A Briggs Not Out  67
J Seward b  Godbole 28
M Gill ct  Godbole 0
C Palmer b  Arshad 37
P Braithwaite  
D Macdonald  

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jeff Cluett11.0245222.504.09
Razavullah Shaik7.0041141.005.86
Sinith Chandran3.002700.009.00
Anthony Cluett8.022600.003.25
Muhammad Shakeel Arshad11.0158319.335.27
Ravi Godbole5.0020210.004.00

Crowthorne & Crown Wood Cricket Club League 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
10w 2b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
13
94		        
Anthony Cluett ct  Macdonald 1 15 6.67
Adam Trigwell ct  Macdonald 0 3 0
Dan Cartledge ct  Gill 6 11 1 54.55 1
Nick Outram ct  Macdonald 1 5 20.0 1
Muhammad Shakeel Arshad ct  Palmer 12 25 2 48.00 1
Mike Brundish lbw  Thompson 22 51 3 43.14 1
Mehboob Alam ct  Braithwaite 4 6 1 66.67
Ravi Godbole Not Out  26 37 3 70.27
Jeff Cluett b  Thompson 0 6 0 1
Razavullah Shaik lbw  Thompson 2 8 25.00
Sinith Chandran b  Macdonald 6 6 1 100

Sulhamstead & Ufton Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
D Macdonald8.13641.500.73
M Gill6.0120120.003.33
C Palmer5.0113113.002.60
P Braithwaite3.0019119.006.33
M Thompson6.012638.674.33
S Aruna2.00700.003.50