Actonians Cricket Club

Scorecard

Actonians Cricket Club 3rd XI v Osterley 4 on Sat 05 Aug 2017 at 12.30pm
Actonians Cricket Club Won By 4 wickets

Match report News filtered through this week from the County league that due to Ickenham's withdrawal, there would now be 2 promotion places available for our division. With Hampstead in a strong position at the top, we could get ourselves in the reckoning with a win this week over 2nd placed Osterley. Before this game we were in 4th, 11 points behind these guys with IG lying in 3rd. We were dealt a blow Saturday morning when the in form Vaughan pulled out with man flu. Marty Gurkin was drafted in which strengthened the batting but we looked a bowler light.

At the toss the oppo only had a handful of players so decided to bat first on a typically green Boddington wicket with the threat of rain hanging in the air. Their opening pair looked an odd couple with a young lad that looked about 14 and a senior gentleman who looked about 50 years older. Kier and Piri shared the new ball and kept both well in check early on as the run rate struggled to get above 2 in the first dozen overs. The young lad then got more aggressive and to be fair started to find the boundary. Meanwhile Huggy was brought on to take the pace off the ball and struck in the first over to get rid of Methuselah. With hindsight this did not really help us as he scored 10 in 18 overs at the crease!

Their number 3 was another good young player and the tempo of the innings started to increase. That said at 86 for 1 after 30 overs we had good reason for thinking we had a semblance of control. However 153 scored off the last 16 soon turned that around! The young opener eventually fell for a well made 63 but useful 40+ scores from 2 of their middle order batsmen ensured they took advantage of our depleted bowling resources. Sameer came on a dobbed a few down but after a tidy 1st over......let's leave it there!

We actually did well to keep it to 239 in the end with Piri coming back capture 3 wickets to match Huggy's tally with the skipper weighing in with 2 of his own. They were always looking to declare after 46 overs and as we know, 240 at Boddingtons is a tough ask if you bowl well. The rain started coming down hard as we took tea but the covers came on. By the time we had digested Nathan's plentiful tea, the sun was out and no time was lost.

We had no regular openers last week in the abandoned game at Harrow Town so we were glad to welcome back Andrew and 2 Metre Charlie. Osterley bowled well at the start and offered very few freebies. We were 33 without loss after 12. Ahead of them at this stage and they also showed the value of wickets in hand. Andrew departed soon after, deceived by a slow full toss that he hit to short cover, so we now had Chas and Charlie at the crease. A rather turgid spell followed as we struggled in the face of some continued tight bowling. Something a couple of their cocky youngsters were at pains to point out.

With a strong middle order in the hutch Charlie rightly decided to have a bit of a dart at 42 for 1 after 18 overs. A straight 6 got him going and all of a sudden we had lift off. Chas started to rotate the strike and allow 2 Metre to use those long levers to good effect. An effortless 6 over mid wicket in particular springs to mind.

Meantime swathes of support started to arrive as firstly the 2s turned up after their spanking at the main ground, followed by the 1s who had dealt out similar punishment to Kenton in their comfortable win. It made for quite an occasion as our belief started to grow that we could pull of this run chase. Charlie eventually fell for an excellent 74 but only after he and Chas had put on exactly 100 for the 2nd wicket. 136 for 2 after 32 overs meant we needed 104 off 14 at rate of 7.4 per over. Chas also departed after a hard fought 38 and we sent in the Gurk to go berserk at 4. Having hit his first boundary he was bowled the next ball. At 180 for 4 Huggy joined Abhay and these 2 kept the momentum going in front of the increasingly excitable crowd and indeed teammates. Huggy fell to a great catch by their keeper running back to snaffle a steepler but Sameer came in to nurdle the ball into the gaps as Osterley went on the defensive (always said there is room for a good nurdle!). Sameer was out on the last ball of the penultimate over but Abhay had the strike for the last as we needed 5 to win. First ball was hammered over extra cover for 4 and he then smashed the next one for a straight 6. Job done. The crowd rose as one to acclaim a fine win as we completed the double over a good Osterley side.

This result means we remain fourth but as IG beat leaders Hampstead, we are 8 behind them and 1 behind Osterley (Harrow Town 4 behind us still in it too). 4 games to go and they are all 45 overs per side so we need to try and win all four at hope results go our way.

Schlong de la Jour I hear you cry? Kier made a bid with his 4 overthrows off his own bowling when he failed to find me from 15 yards! However for wearing long johns under his whites in August the winner had to be Sameer!

Other news........Chas is to star in a Bollywood version of Top Gun. He will either play Cobra or Kingfisher!

Osterley 4 Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 5w 6b  
for 8 wickets
13
239 (46.0 overs)
     
Raheel ct  Mehaffy B Qamar 10
Rohaill b  Qamar 63
Naisir lbw  Mehaffy 33
Kartik ct  Gurkin B Sivanathan 47
Farman ct  Price B Qamar 6
Salman b  Sivanathan 45
Arbab ct  Maben B Sivanathan 11
Hassan ct  Spinks B Mehaffy 4
Makoor Not Out  4
Kushmit Not Out  3
Khan  

Actonians Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Keir Smith13.034100.003.15
Piradeepan Sivanathan12.0051317.004.25
Asif Qamar11.0061320.335.55
Nathan Mehaffy6.0048224.008.00
Sameer Butt3.003200.0010.67

Actonians Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 12w 18b 6lb 
for 6 wickets
40
245
        
Andrew Maben ct  Farman B Rohaill 7 1
Charlie Price ct  Rohaill B Kushmit 74 8 3 1
Chaz Hussain b  Kushmit 38
Matt Gurkin b  Salman 8 1 1
Abhay Nakhare Not Out  49 3 2
Asif Qamar ct  Naisir B Salman 17 2 1
Sameer Butt b  Salman 12
Piradeepan Sivanathan Not Out  0
Andrew Spinks   1
Keir Smith  
Nathan Mehaffy   1

Osterley 4 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Kushmit 11.0148224.004.36
Salman15.0363321.004.20
Rohaill6.0020120.003.33
Makoor 4.012600.006.50
Arbab4.202900.006.69
Kartik 2.001500.007.50
Hasan3.001800.006.00