Scorecard

Reading CC 2nd XI v Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday on Sat 11 May 2024 at 13:00
Thatcham Town Cricket Club Won Won by 7 runs

Match report The Trout’s made a splash on their way to an opening weekend victory by 7 runs away at fellow division 3 new boys Reading 2s on Saturday.

New skipper, George Wheeler proved he was already better than his predecessor by winning a toss and chose to bat first on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Following a wet pre-season there was some understandable rust but Thatcham set out to not lose early wickets and build for a late flurry of runs. 5 overs in and Thatcham were 14-2 with both openers back in the shed. George joined Jack at the crease and the pair looked to rebuild the innings. The pair played in contrasting styles. The skipper playing some powerful strokes looking a million dollars whilst Jack couldn’t hit it off the square. George made a fine 34 before Singh found his outside edge. BDP came to the crease and looked like a man who’d been dreaming and itching to have a bat for 8 months. We got to about 90-3 at drinks with Jack making an eye catching 16 off 60 balls but the Thatcham pair pushed on after drinks. BDP like the Wolf looked good for 18 before becoming the third Thatcham batter to miss a straight one. Harley provided a bit of impetus as we tried to get our innings going also making a good 18. By this point Thatcham were looking to push up to the 200 mark as Jack passed 50, putting even Baz to sleep in the process. Some handy late order contributions and a few leg byes saw us creep up to 200 before Greener was the last man to go for 2 with 2 balls left of our innings. We felt well in the game posting 200 with our bowling attack. Despite not having much middle time this year everyone chipped in to get us to a competitive score and the 40 extras from Reading really helped.

George set out his demands for the bowlers at the start of our innings. Keep it tight, give them nothing. Odhinn took the first over, consisting of 4 wides and a no ball. The promising part is he looked threatening with the legal deliveries as he and Greener settled into a rhythm. Odhinn got us our first wicket of the season, finding the edge of the Reading opener and Christopher Bird took a good diving catch at slip. A partnership for Reading grew and George turned to his spinners in typical Trout fashion. 60-1 soon became 67-7 as Webbs and the Goat got to work. Arun proving to be unplayable as he took 4 scalps and was unlucky to not get his well deserved 5-for as he dropped a sharp caught and bowled. Birdy was his miserly self and even managed to hold on to a caught and bowled for the first time this decade. The game was far from done there as Reading showed a lot of fight and bottle to get back in the game. Even when Birdy got his third wicket and the score on 111-8, the Farooq brothers had other ideas. They put on a partnership that saw them up to 192 and 9 to win off 8 balls remaining. A combination of good batting, poor fielding and some dubious penalty runs saw them in with a chance of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Much to Baz’s delight, the ball got thrown to BDP who turned the game in Thatcham’s favour once more by removing Farooq for 50-odd. A top innings to be fair. With 8 needed off the last over, it was left to Greener to close the game out. He held his nerve and Odhinn wrapped up the game with a worldie grab at mid off to win us the game.

Great game, we look to go again next week at home to Bagshot with a strong side. Gary Lyon makes his competitive debut for the trouts and Bart returns fresh from his 5-fer in the 2s.

DOTD goes to Birdy for getting the third team game abandoned and stopping a triple Thatcham win.

UTFT!

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 27w 4b 7lb 
for 10 wickets
40
200		        
Michael Klichowicz b Sethunga 6
Jamie Young b Farooq 5
Jack Young b Sethunga 70
George Wheeler ct Singh 34
Ben Denton-Powell b Naeem 18
Harley Sheridan-Hawkins ct Ali 18
Arun Ganesh Madhasaravanan lbw Sethunga 1
Odhinn Moore ct Sethunga 5
Olly Thorne b Farooq 1
Chris Bird Not Out  0
Mike Green ct Farooq 2

Reading CC 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Farooq9.012839.333.11
Sethunga9.013849.504.22
Singh9.0326126.002.89
Wilkinson8.004100.005.13
Naeem6.0036136.006.00
Brennan2.00900.004.50
Ali2.001100.005.50

Reading CC 2nd XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 23w 6lb 
for 10 wickets
30
193 (44.4 overs)		     
Baker b c & b Bird 14
Ali ct b Moore c Bird 7
Ahmed ct b Madhasaravanan c Young 30
Brennan b b Madhasaravanan 1
Phizackerley b b Bird 0
Farooq lbw b Denton-Powell 53
Wilkinson b b Madhasaravanan 0
Singh ct b Madhasaravanan c Green 0
Sethunga ct b Bird c Klichowicz 20
Farooq ct b Green c Moore 29
Naeem Not Out  4

Thatcham Town Cricket Club Thatcham 1XI- Saturday Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Odhinn Moore9.0131131.003.44
Mike Green8.4136136.004.15
Arun Ganesh Madhasaravanan9.021042.501.11
Chris Bird9.0037312.334.11
Olly Thorne6.004900.008.17
Ben Denton-Powell3.0019119.006.33