Scorecard

Chiswick & Whitton v Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday on Sat 13 Aug 2016 at 12.30
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Lost by 2 wickets

Match report A calamitous and ill disciplined display with the bat has sucked Thatcham back into the relegation dogfight as they went down by 2 wickets to basement side Chiswick & Whitton on Saturday.

Winning the toss, Thatcham skipper Duncan Johnson opted to bat first on a dry looking surface and a steady, if unspectacular, start saw Peter Spriggs and Johnson himself negotiate the first few overs from the Chiswick new ball attack of Kazim Naqvi and Imran Khan. A bizarre 6th over saw Khan produce a beauty to get rid of Spriggs, who nicked through to keeper Mohamed for 11 and then with two balls gone in the over, Khan pulled up with a side strain. Unable to continue, Kalim Khan took over and induced another nick from Kieran Wood which was juggled by the keeper and eventually caught at gully by Naqvi to send Wood on his way without troubling the scorers. Former Pakistani pro Naqvi has been round the Thames Valley scene with several clubs and he was now beginning to show his class, bowling a superb length and moving the ball both ways off the pitch. Johnson's patient vigil had lasted 12 overs before he poked at one outside the off stump and edged through to Mohamed for 7 as Naqvi took centre stage ripping through the Thatcham batting line up. Jack Young fell lbw for 4 and Jack Andrews edged to Mohamed in the gully for 0. Tom Mahoney had batted well up until that point, reaching 31 with little or no alarm but in spinner Nitin Panale's first over Mahoney fell to a slighty more flighted deliver and was bowled off his pads. Matt Denness was then clean bowled round his legs from a Naqvi slower ball which behaved like a Warne leg spinner and Thatcham were in dire trouble at 67-7 from just the 23 overs bowled. John Williams and Callum Johnson added 30 valuable runs together until Johnson hung his bat out at Naqvi and edged through to the keeper for 10. It was now down to Williams and the returning Scott Gibson to take some time out of the game. With half of the innings left it was vital that someone took control and batted sensibly. Gibson, in his first game for 6 weeks, looked measured and had reached 18, mainly by sweeping spinner Panale, but it was Panale who had the last word as Gibson attempted another sweep and was clean bowled for 18. The visitors were now 128-9 through 32 overs and with last man Chris Bird joining Williams, the pair needed to bat for as long as possible. Williams is a man who lives by the sword with his batting and he had reached 33 with eight boundaries when he once again faced up to Naqvi. The first two balls of the 33rd over went to the boundary to move the score up to 136-9 but that was as good as it got as Naqvi dug a shorter ball in which Williams tried to pull to the fence and could only succeed in offering up a simple caught and bowled to finish the innings. Thatcham were inexplicably all out in 32.3 overs and although Williams (41), Mahoney (31) and Gibson (18) were the three top scorers in the innings, they will all be disappointed in the soft manner of their dismissals.

Kazim Naqvi bowled unchanged from one end returning figures of 16.3 overs, 6 maidens, 6-40 and he was supported by Panale 2-47 from 6 overs, Kalim Khan 1-32 from 7.4 overs and Imran Khan 1-13 from 2.2 overs.

Thatcham took the new ball from the start in the hope that Callum Johnson and Jack Andrews could extract the same kind of movement that gave Naqvi his success but it wasn't until the 8th over that Andrews struck, Abdul Mohamed trying to go over the top could only find Spriggs at mid-on and he took a good catch to dismiss the opener for 16. Aman Chopra has been a thorn on Thatcham's side a few times before and once again he was proving difficult to shift. He doesn't score quickly and plays and misses more times than other batters but he hangs in there and plays with guts and determination. He had only reached 4 runs in the 14th over when Andrews struck again, Gibson taking an excellent catch low down at second slip. John Williams was introduced into the attack and it wasn't long before he was in the wickets, Ishak Mohamed attempting an awful looking sweep shot against the spin and top edging to Tom Mahoney for 1. Fresh from him 6 wickets, it was the dominant figure of Naqvi who strode out to join Nitin Panale at the crease and Thatcham knew this was the partnership to break. Panale looked in good order and had reached 13 when another sweep shot brought about another wicket. He swept hard at Williams and was expecting a boundary until Kieran Wood held on to a brilliant catch to leave Panale with a slow walk back to the pavilion shaking his head in disbelief. Williams followed that by bowling Wedlock for 0 in the next over and suddenly Chiswick were 56-5 through 19 overs and Thatcham had a sniff. It was clear it was down to Naqvi to guide the mid-lower order through the game and see his side over the line and he knew it and the visitors knew it as a real game of cat and mouse then took place. Thatcham wanted to bowl at the other batters and Naqvi wanted to keep the strike and it made for some riveting cricket. Avneet Wadwha hung around with Naqvi, the pair adding 38 valuable runs before Wadwha fell for 7, Tom Mahoney safely hanging onto another ill advised sweep shot. Kalim Khan added 12 quick runs before he edged Williams to Duncan Johnson at slip and at 122-7, the home side needed just 15 runs for victory. Naqvi had calmly reached 48 when for some reason he tried to hit Chris Bird for a maximum and could only find the safe hands of Wood at long off. Naqvi had to go and Chiswick were now 128-8 with just the injured Imran Khan in the hutch. Chiswick skipper Clyde Scott was at the crease and it was clear his partner Fahad Sheikh was not confident of a long stay. Thatcham really sensed a chance to pull off an unlikely victory if they could chisel Scott out. Agonisingly Scott squirted Williams through the off side for a boundary and Sheikh somehow kept Chris Bird out. Scott then hit the winning runs off Williams in the 45th over as he finished unbeaten on 13 to see his side home and a 25 point haul.

It was a tense finale and Thatcham bowled and fielded as if their lives depended on it. John Williams produced another excellent display of left arm spin as he claimed 5-47 from 17.5 overs. Jack Andrews bowled with pace and aggression getting through 14 overs unchanged to return 2-46 and Chris Bird was his usual solid self with 1-22 from 8 overs but as hard as the bowlers tried, the damage had been done with the bat and it was to prove irretrievable.

Division 2b is so tight, 4th placed Hurst have 225 points, High Wycombe 2's have 205 points, Thatcham have 199, Beaconsfield have 192, Burnham 2's have 187 and Wargrave have 182, so with just 43 points separating six sides it's a real scrap to avoid going down with Chiswick, who with 145 points, looked doomed already. There are 75 points to play for and Thatcham's run in begins with Hurst at home on Saturday followed by a huge trip to Wargrave before finishing off with Slough 2's at Brownsfield on September 3rd.


Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2w 2b 6lb 
for 10 wickets
10
136		        
Peter Spriggs ct Imran Khan 11 2 1
Duncan Johnson ct Kazim Naqvi 7 1
Kieran Wood ct Kalim Khan 0 2
Tom Mahoney b Nitin Panale 31 5 2
Jack Young lbw Kazim Naqvi 4 1
Jack Andrews ct Kazim Naqvi 0
Matthew Denness b Kazim Naqvi 4
John Williams ct Kazim Naqvi 41 10
Callum Johnson ct Kazim Naqvi 10 1
Scott Gibson b Nitin Panale 18 4 1
Chris Bird Not Out  0

Chiswick & Whitton Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Kazim Naqvi16.364066.672.42
Imran Khan2.2113113.005.57
Kalim Khan7.4232132.004.17
Nitin Panale6.0147223.507.83

Chiswick & Whitton Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 10w 6b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
23
137 (44.5 overs)		     
Abdul Mohamed ct Jack Andrews 16
Aman Chopra ct Jack Andrews 4
Nitin Panale ct John Williams 13
Ishak Mohamed ct John Williams 1
Kazim Naqvi ct Chris Bird 48
Sam Wedlock b John Williams 0
Avneet Wadwha ct John Williams 7
Kalim Khan ct John Williams 12
Clyde Scott Not Out  13
Fahad Sheikh Not Out  0
Imran Khan  

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Callum Johnson5.001500.003.00
Jack Andrews14.0446223.003.29
John Williams17.564759.402.64
Chris Bird8.0122122.002.75

  • Umpire :
    Panel
  • Scorer :
    Ian Martin