Scorecard

Pinner Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI v Watford Town 3 on Sat 07 May 2022 at 1300
Pinner Cricket Club Won by 4 wickets

Match report Partnership of 137 for 5th wicket between Dhawan and Tucker

Match Report:
Pinner 1s welcomed last year's Division 8B champions Watford Town 3s for the opening league game with Felix Hoh's plea to stop "faffing about in this division" ringing in everyone's ears. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first.

The Pinner bowlers started like the meteorology department's malfunctioning radars which had told us all week that it was going to be sunny. While there was the occasional unplayable ball, regular loose deliveries were served up by Nicholas, Salman and Jack (Felix bowled an economic spell) - a rare bad day at the office. Combined with good batting from the opening pair, especially Muruganandan (58), we struggled to contain the flow of runs - Watford Town running away to 110-0 in their first 20 overs. Daniel brought himself and Kavit into the attack to slow things down and that's exactly what they did, gradually clawing Pinner back into the game with a string of quiet overs. Wickets started falling at regular intervals as soon as the visitors tried to accelerate. Kavit was unlucky not to pick up a wicket (more on this later) in his spell of 0-38 off 8 overs and Dan finished with 1-20 off his quota, picking up Muruganandan's wicket. Salman (3-45 from 7 overs) and Felix (1-22 from 7 overs) came back for excellent second spells and together with Kunal, ensured the visitors couldn't cut loose. Pinner had a mixed day in the field with 4 catches dropped but excellent ground fielding and wicketkeeping of the absolute highest quality - including one throw retrieved from Hatch End with one hand to break the stumps - got us four run outs, to restrict Watford Town to 203-9 in their 40 overs. A remarkable come back from the Lambs, when a 250+ score looked inevitable at drinks.

Rohitesh Dhawan and I went out to bat looking to set up the chase but I returned in about 4 minutes, trapped LBW for 0 by a grubber that didn't get off the floor. While I sulked in the changing room, Kavit Dixit also returned after spooning a catch to mid-off. I was still sulking and just getting changed when Darshan also returned. So furious was he with a perceived injustice (he was bowled), that I genuinely thought my head was in danger from flying kit. Rumour is that he wasn't ready when the ball was delivered. We've all had decisions go against us, son. Salman didn't last long either - he took a walk towards gully to be bowled leg stump around his legs and to be fair he could've been bowled off stump around his legs too. Pinner 12-4 in the 7th over and 204 looked impossible. Watford Town thought they had the game in the bag.

Enter Jack Tucker. He joined carnage survivor Ro, and the two cautiously saw off the new ball threat before starting to tick the score over. By the 20 over mark, they'd taken the score to 79-4. After drinks, the pair started finding the boundary regularly, bringing the asking rate down from 7 to 6 an over. Jack was looking good to carry his bat through the innings and looking unstoppable on 73 when he, just like me, got one that almost rolled along the floor. The umpire (who shall remain nameless) instantly gave him out - Jack just smiling as he indicated a bottom edge later confirmed by non-striker, leg umpire, opposition fielders and the cashier at the petrol station across the road. That ended a brilliant 137 run partnership. Meanwhile, Darshan was still furious.

Nicholas joined Ro and he played a scintillating knock of 23 (14balls, 3 fours, 1 six) that contained some gorgeous strokes. The pair put on 40 in 4 overs to get Pinner to the doorstep of victory, 189-6 and 15 needed off 5 overs. CE-Ro (69 off 77 balls, 8 fours) was playing like a man with a flight to catch (which he literally did) by this point and together with Raj Venkar (14 off 8 balls) took Pinner home to register our first win of the season.

This wasn't by any standards our best performance but some great signs that this team refuses to give up when their backs are against the wall. A few individuals bailed us out of tough situations and saw us through. The game was played in excellent spirit by both teams. We wish the visitors well for the rest of their season, except for when they meet us again. As always, thanks to Alan Kay for scoring and to Marisha Dhawan for her stupendous vegan friendly cake.

Dick of the day: A tough decision between two instances of "I didn't see it". One was from the nameless umpire not spotting a bottom edge. The winner however is Kavit who was so enraged when Kunal dropped a dolly at point, that he was was kicking up dirt and shouting "Fuuuuudge" (because he doesn't swear apparently) facing the opposite direction, all the while not knowing that Kunal had affected a run out. I have shared some life lessons with him on necessary swearing from the legend, Sean Lock (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDGoWNXq7hg)

Player(s) of the match: Jack Tucker and Rohitesh Dhawan for a magnificent partnership that resurrected the batting innings. Notable mentions to Daniel and Kavit who kept us in the game when bowling.
It's Monday morning and Darshan is reportedly still furious. Have a Cream Soda, mate.

Watford Town 3 Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 8w 9b 5lb 
for 9 wickets
25
204 (40.0 overs)		     
M. Thirukkutralan b  Langan 58
T. Saleem ct  D. Dixit b Moeeniddin 66
J. Rajpurkar Run out  9
P. Sorathia Run out  16
I. Khan ct  Ramachandran b Moeeniddin 8
S. Bhatti ct  Lawrence b Moeeniddin 9
T. Jan b  Hoh 0
C. Hutchinson Run out  9
S. Naqvee Run out  1
Z. Khan Not Out  2
W. Rajpurkar Not Out  1

Pinner Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Felix Hoh7.0122122.003.14
Nick Lawrence3.002400.008.00
Jack Tucker4.002500.006.25
Sal Moeeniddin7.0045315.006.43
Daniel Langan8.0020120.002.50
Kavit Dixit8.013800.004.75
Kunal Gandhi3.001600.005.33

Pinner Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 6w 12b 2lb 
for 6 wickets
21
205		        
Rohitesh Dhawan Not Out  69 8
Hari Ramachandran lbw  Z. Khan 0 1
Kavit Dixit ct  Saleem b J. Rajpurkar 0
Darshan Dixit b  Z. Khan 0 1
Sal Moeeniddin b  J. Rajpurkar 5
Jack Tucker lbw  Saleem 73 11
Nick Lawrence b  Bhatti 23 3 1 1
Raj Vernekar Not Out  14 2
Kunal Gandhi  
Felix Hoh  
Daniel Langan  

Watford Town 3 Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J. Rajpurkar8.031226.001.50
Z. Khan8.0242221.005.25
W. Rajpurkar4.002600.006.50
T. Jan5.002700.005.40
S. Naqvee3.002200.007.33
S. Bhatti4.0025125.006.25
T. Saleem4.0037137.009.25