Actonians Cricket Club

Scorecard

Actonians Cricket Club 2nd XI v Birkbeck College on Sat 15 Jun 2013 at 1.00pm
Actonians Cricket Club Won by 122 runs

Match report Second XI claim a valuable victory against top of table Birkbeck College

On a day hampered by showers, Old Actonians' second team secured a formidable victory against top of the table rivals, Birkbeck College.

The visitors won the toss and put the 2s into bat. Club stalwart Andrew Maben and club newbee Alex Browne (of the Geoff Barker academy) opened up the innings. Their styles complimented each other well, Browne immediately going on the attack, while Maben held up the other end. Browne was looking good until he failed to play through a shot and chipped it to mid-wicket in the third over.

With an early wicket in the pocket of the visitors they started to feel in the game but Maben and, number three, Adam Pearson were about to change the feelings.

During the partnership of 180 runs from 24 overs, the duo really showed their class. From one end, Maben was caressing the ball through the on side with the occasional hard drive through the off. Meanwhile, Pearson was making the most of anything loose, creaming 14 balls to the fence in his innings.

There was a wobble in the 20th over when a shout went up for Maben being caught behind. The decision was turned down however, and a battle of 'wits' and courage struck up between the fielding side and the passive Maben. A somewhat pantomime display followed with five successive deliveries being attempted unsuccessfully. Maben was un-phased by this however, and went on to score 65 from his 84 deliveries. Pearson somewhat stole the show with the bat though, taking a blistering 101 from 64 deliveries, restoring his club reputation and already putting him in for Butterworth contention.

After Pearson was finally dismissed, pulling to deep square-leg, Josh Jayakar was halfway to the crease when the heavens opened. After 15 minutes of heavy downpour an early tea was taken with only 27.3 overs on the board (13 having been lost due to previous breaks).

The rain continued to fall, past the 30 mins allowed for tea and it wasn't until half past four that a small crew were able to inspect the pitch. Unfortunately, due to heavy winds, the flaps on the covers had been disturbed, causing a couple of wet patches. It took a great deal of hard work, nowse and discarded rugby kit to make the pitch ready for an inspection at 5:30 but it was managed.

At 5:30 the umpires made the call that play was possible and Berkbeck captain, Maan, was taken by surprise at Ali Slaughter's decision to declare, giving the visitors 38 overs in which to chase a getable 188.

The As knew they had a job to do at the start of the innings, with early wickets being essential to disrupt what could be a short run chase, bearing in mind Birkbeck's reputation as a team which lives and dies by the sword; they did not disappoint.

It took only three overs for the first wicket to be claimed by Nawroz Arghandabi. After being strangled for runs, opener F. Ali flicked at one going past his legs and the chance was snaffled by Slaughter (minor) in the gloves.

Piri was the next to strike, bowling Muttaqi with an inswinging yorker and with single figures on the board, Birkbeck were clearly starting to get antsy.

The next two wickets to fall involved the unlikely duo of Pearson and Nawroz, the first seeing Pearson taking a comfortable catch at cover from Nawroz's bowling and the second a near mirror image with Pearson's finger spin attracting an edge from left hander R. Maan which founds its way to Nawroz's waiting paws.

With two more in the shed, As were getting more and more fired up and suddenly the gaps in the field started to look a lot smaller to the batsmen in the middle. Vice Captain Anthony Carlos was setting the standard, throwing himself around at gully and point to save at least four boundaries. Again, though it was Pearson who claimed the spoils in the field.

While sitting casually at mid-off, Shaun Qamar's miserly bowling tempted two false drives which sat up nicely for Pearson to collect. He then secured a calmly executed run-out when overeager new man, U. Maan, set off leaving on strike batsman, M. Ali stranded in the middle of the pitch while Qamar whipped the bails off at the bowler's end.

U. Maan was finally joined by his captain A Maan for the final partnership and the latter looked determined to stick around for as long as possible. With some grubby looking clouds on the horizon, a draw could be on the cards unless a break through could be made.

The As though they had finished it three balls into the 27th over, when a noise was heard as the ball travelled past U Maan's bat. However, the decision was turned down by Ernie Charles and the match continued.

As didn't have to wait long for the victory though, as three balls later lightening struck for a second time and this time, despite a stubborn stand from U Maan he was given out, giving the seconds their first win of the season.

The win was the result of some excellent batting from Maben and Pearson setting a strong base, back up by an all round outstanding display in the field. An excellent all round performance from Old Actonians and hopefully, this performance will set the tone for the rest of the season.

Pearson was awarded Man of the Match for his quickly scored century but Shaun Qamar's four wickets from seven overs for only eleven runs undoubtedly put him in contention.

Actonians Cricket Club 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 8b 3lb 
for 2 wickets
12
188		        
Andrew Maben Not Out  65 84 5 77.38
Alex Browne ct Mid Wicket Bowled Z Shah 7 10 1 70.0
Adam Pearson ct Deep Square Leg Bowled A Hussain 101 62 12 2 162.90 3 1
Josh Jayakar Not Out  0
Rob Long  
Alistair Slaughter   2
Shaiq Qamar  
Nawroz Arghandabi  
Piradeepan Sivanathan  
Anthony Carlos  
Duncan Slaughter  

Birkbeck College Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Z Shah8.0336136.004.50
U Maan7.003800.005.43
V Chaudhry2.001100.005.50
A Mutaqi1.001200.0012.00
F Ali4.003100.007.75
A Maan3.002800.009.33
S Zaman2.001500.007.50
A Hussain0.30212.004.00

Birkbeck College Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 1w 8b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
12
66 (27.0 overs)		     
F Ali+ ct A Slaughter Bowled Nawroz 2
A Hussain ct Pearson Bowled Nawroz 9
A Muttaqi b Sivanathan 4
R Maan ct Nawroz Bowled Pearson 8
Asad Hussain lbw Qamar 17
S Zaman lbw Pearson 1
B Chaudhry ct Pearson Bowled Qamar 0
U Maan ct A Slaughter Bowled Qamar 4
Z Shah ct Pearson Bowled Qamar 9
M Ali run out (Pearson) 0
A Maan* Not Out  0

Actonians Cricket Club 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Nawroz Arghandabi7.011628.002.29
Piradeepan Sivanathan4.0015115.003.75
Adam Pearson9.031326.501.44
Shaiq Qamar7.041142.751.57

  • Umpire :
    Ernie Charles
  • Scorer :