Scorecard

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday v Gerrards Cross on Sat 24 May 2008 at 11.30am
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Won by 6 wickets

Match report An absolutely awesome performance gave us our first victory of the season.

We won the toss and elected to field. Naqvi and Harland started on what is seemingly becoming usual form and bowled a very tight first ten conceeding just 18 runs. The pressure paid off with Harland having Shahid taken by a sharp catch from Stone. A double bowling change brought Bird and Edgcombe into the attack, with instant results Bird picking up the hard hitting Duncan in his first over, due to a great low catch from Johnson at extra cover.
Wright the Gerrard's Cross in form batsmen came to the crease and batted very sensibly in the early stages, picking off anything loose. Duncan Johnson replaced Edgcombe and removed the young opener Westaway. Thatcham missed a chance to pick up the wicket of Rimmer, and GC were in a promising position of 150-3 at lunch.
It was clear after the interval that GC had decided with wickets in hand that they would push on as quickly as possible. Wright sooned reached a superb seemingly effortless hundred, Bishop was introduced to try to stem the flow of runs, he removed Rimmer LBW for 41. Wright continued in the same great form and and was briefly joined by Phaliwal who put good pressure on the field, but ended up running himself out, pushing a little too hard. Naqvi bowled well after lunch and was rewarded with the prize wicket of Wright for an awesome 136. Purewal and Packer batted well in the remaining three overs, with Gerrards Cross finishing on a great total of 277-6.

We felt we bowled and fielded well and quite simply Gerrards had batted superbly. It was a massive target and I was just keen for our batsmen to go out and bat sensibly. It was a difficult pitch to get in on, but the idea was simply to get established and keep wickets in hand.

The boys did exactly that, Gav MacDonald and the returning James Ettridge batted well, despatching anything loose. The opening bowlers were soon changed for spin and the change accounted for Ettridge for 18.
Dan Stone came to the crease in determined mood and he and MacDonald batted well, before Stone was caught behind for 13. With Thatcham 83-2 Steve Wyatt joined MacDonald, but it was MacDonald who quickly followed Stone, a superb knock of 51. Thatcham were in need of the interval with Wyatt looking all at sea, although Naqvi was in fine form, hitting the second ball of his innings for six. Tea was taken at 113-3 with a minimum of 21 overs left to bowl.
What followed after tea was simply awesome, as Naqvi and Wyatt took the attack to Gerrards, hammering the ball to all parts. Naqvi was removed for 51 and Thatcham were 191-4 in the 43rd over.
Johnson joined Wyatt and they continued in the same form, with extra overs available, the boys batted superbly clearly determined on not settling for the draw and batted brilliantly to bring home the result in 53.3 overs. Wyatt signing off a memorable victory with a huge six to reach 75 not out and Johnson supporting superbly on 35 not out.

I was pretty harsh on the boys after last weeks batting performance and was incredibly impressed with this one. A huge confidence boost and it was actually a pretty quiet dressing room as I think we were all a bit stunned by what we achieved. It was a simply awesome display by the batters and all credit to all of them coming back so strongly after last week. We have needed to change the style in which we bat in this league and the boys clearly showed they are more than capable of doing this. A huge and very memorable first victory in the HCPL.

Gerrards Cross Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
277 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Andy Harland16.0271171.004.44
Ali Naqvi17.0272172.004.24
Peter Edgcombe4.002400.006.00
Chris Bird10.0433133.003.30
Duncan Johnson9.0334134.003.78
Nick Bishop4.0036136.009.00

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
279		        
Gavin McDonald Lbw  51
James Ettridge Caught  18
Dan Stone Caught  13 2
Ali Naqvi Caught  51
Steve Wyatt Not Out  75
Duncan Johnson Not Out  35 1
Rakesh Patel  
Andy Harland  
Nick Bishop  
Chris Bird  
Peter Edgcombe  

Gerrards Cross Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

  • Umpire :
    Panel
  • Scorer :
    Ian Martin