AMERSHAM CC

Scorecard

AMERSHAM CC Saturday 1st X1 v Kew on Sat 28 Jun 2008 at 13:30
Match was Drawn

Match report Kew visited Shardeloes on Saturday to find the ground looking at its midsummer best, complete with a marquee for a wedding reception. The two sides fought out an enjoyable game of cricket in which, probably rightly, honours ended up shared. Having won the toss Amersham captain Luke Jackson continued the policy of batting first which has brought success of late. Chris Fleming walked out to open the batting at 1.30pm and dominated the next 2 and a half hours of the game. He was eventually dismissed for 148, the 10th highest individual score in Amersham's long history. However, for some time he waged a solitary resistance against the Kew bowlers, particularly Dunn, whose figures of 4-64 off 17.3 overs made him comfortably the most effective of the Kew attack. He found extra bounce to induce an edge from Andy Viney to break an opening partnership of 45 and wickets then fell too regularly for Amersham's liking as the upper middle order were unable to establish them.

At 103-5 Amersham's position appeared perilous, but Richard Stephenson played a hugely important innings in support of Fleming. Fleming's innings was characterised by sumptuous cover drives and neat play on the legside. Once he was well past 100 he seemed to go into overdrive, taking 22 off one over including 3 sixes which struck the pavilion, the wedding marquee, and a VW Polo in the car park. Stephenson played his role to perfection. Initially he supported Fleming by running aggressively between the wickets but as his innings developed he too scored very rapidly, eventually hitting 46 of his 62 runs in boundaries. Between them Stephenson & Fleming put on 113 in 20 overs to change the game's balance. At tea, then, Amersham were satisfied with their position of 267-7, especially from the relativel poverty of 103-5.

Unsurprisingly, spinners David Atkinson (3-51) and Mustapha Rajabali (1-65)opened the bowling. Opening the batting for Kew was the other key figure in this game. Bruce Friderichs is known as a high quality batsmen in the Thames Valley League and his chanceless innings of 109 merely re-inforced this impression. Atkinson, Rajabali and Matt Ash (3-39) shared the opening 15 overs. They succeeded in restricting the scoring to only 40 runs at that point, well below the required rate, but they had been unable to remove Friderichs or his partner Lowe.

Taking the new ball at this point was tactically a sensible move, but it rapidly backfired as both batsmen despatched it in uncompromising fashion to all corners of the ground. Chris Cann (1-38) did claim the wicket of Lowe when he gloved a rising ball to Dan Colquhoun behind the stumps, but this served to bring the left handed Dunusinghe to the crease. He scored a rapid 36 which but Kew in a dominant position at 161-1. Rajabali deceived him in the flight to induce a return catch to the bowler, but Friderichs was proceeding serenely on his way to his century and seemed certain to lead Kew to victory.

However, the re-introduction of spin applied sufficient pressure to swing the game back towards Amersham. Atkinson bowled his best spell for many months from the pavilion end, bowling a relentlessly good line & length that prevented rapid scoring, and Rajabali and then Ash operated from the barley field end. The key moment came when Atkinson slid a topspinner through Friderichs' defences which he could only help onto his off stump. This removed Kew's momentum and triggered something of a collpse. Kew continued to try and win the game, but this led to three quick wickets for Ash as Andy Viney and Chris Cann took good catches in the outfield and Dan Colquhoun displayed balletic footwork to reach a skied catch to short fine leg. Eventually Kew gave up the chase and shut up shop for the last three overs. There was no repeat of Amersham's last over heroics at Wokingham the previous week and the game ended in a draw. The action was not over, however, as the wedding reception was in full swing. This culminated in a spectacular fireworks display which seemed a slight overreaction to the quality of Chris Fleming's innings earlier in the day!

One footnote-your correspondent particularly enjoyed the opportunity to ask one of his fielders to occupy the unusual position of 'in front of the rosearch by the marquee' instead of the more prosaic deep extra cover.

AMERSHAM CC Saturday 1st X1 Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
267		        
Chris Fleming Stumped  148
Andrew Viney Caught  11 1
Chris Cann Lbw  0 1
Dan Colquhoun Caught  13 2
Luke Jackson Caught  2
Chris Owen Caught  5
Richard Stephenson Caught  62
Matthew Ash Not Out  9 1
Brad Holt Not Out  2
David Atkinson  
Mustapha Rajabali   1

Kew Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
M Dunn17.3364416.003.66
A Licudi7.003600.005.14
M O'Toole12.0235135.002.92
R Bajaj8.006800.008.50
S Foster7.0043221.506.14
M Dunusinghe0.30800.0016.00

Kew Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
248 (0.0 overs)		     
D Lowe Caught  32
B Friderichs Bowled  110
M Dunusinghe Caught  36
M Taylor Caught  8
E Knowles Caught  8
G Milne Caught  14
A Licudi Caught  1
M O'Toole Lbw  1
M Dunn Not Out  5
S Foster Not Out  1
   

AMERSHAM CC Saturday 1st X1 Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
David Atkinson19.0351317.002.68
Mustapha Rajabali11.0065165.005.91
Matthew Ash7.0039313.005.57
Brad Holt4.003200.008.00
Chris Cann5.0038138.007.60
Chris Owen2.001900.009.50

  • Umpire :
    League
  • Scorer :
    Peter Davies