Scorecard

Headstone Manor v Pinner Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI on Sat 30 Apr 2022 at 1300
Pinner Cricket Club Won by 54 runs

Match report Pinner 1s vs. Headstone Manor, @ Headstone Manor, pre-season friendly

Pinner 1s travelled to Headstone Manor in the hope of registering a win at a venue that wasn't kind to them around the same time last year. Rohitesh Dhawan was comprehensively beaten by "the one that turned" by Daniel Langan in the pre-game net session (I was not paid to write this). On learning that Pinner had decided to bat and since it has been roughly 14 years and 242 days since my last act of generosity, I offered Kavit Dixit the opening slot alongside Rohitesh 'Head of Indiscipline' Dhawan. He declined. Error number one of the day for Mr. Courteous.

Ro and I struggled to lay bat on ball in the first few overs as the oppo had insisted on "leg side wides" and sure enough proceeded to gift us 3-4 wides per over. That and a few boundaries got Pinner to a brisk 42 before I was bowled by their surprise weapon among the wides - a straight ball. Unplayable. This brings us to Kavit's second error of the day. After slapping a beamer for four the bowler offered him a gentle full toss almost as an apology. Little did he know that our Kavit was keen to prove he was the bigger man. He wanted to apologize to the bowler for hitting him for four. He cleverly picked a full toss, lobbed the easiest of catches to short cover, immediately and trudged off. He apologized to Ro on his way out and to his teammates.

Nicholas Doom Bar Lawrence joined Ro and the pair played sensibly, putting on a 38 run stand to take Pinner to 90 when Ro was given his marching orders by Raj. Later questioning of the decision was met with a strong justification - "there was no way I could not give it". Got it, thanks. Back to the action and Nick, in his own words, suffered a brain fade (he has recovered since) and was bowled for 33 attempting a slog with the score on 129. That started the trademark Pinner wobble - Salman, Jack, Kunal and Ömkår (21) all getting out to leave Pinner at a precarious 153-8. Raj Venkar however was only just warming up in the middle.

Raj works three jobs and had barely got any sleep the previous night. His most important quality when he bats is that he treats all bowlers the same - like not one of them is worth a f****g second of his time. His unorthodox play was met with chuckles to begin with but the grins were replaced by salty tears when he middled everything he swung at in a fantastic, counter attack. He was ably supported by Felix Hoh and then Daniel who smashed two giant sixes of his own. Raj finished with 41 off 42 balls with 6 fours including a reverse sweep Joe Root would be proud of and Pinner were all out in the last over for 217. The last wicket put on 3 runs more than our opening partnership.

Nicholas Lawrence stood down from opening bowler responsibilities (how very generous) and Jack Tucker grabbed the opportunity. As it turned out Jack started off with a wonderful spell of bowling. Felix kicked things off at the other end and was equally if not more spectacular. The batters were beaten repeatedly and Felix finally got his reward with a beauty that had the opposition opener's leg stump knocked back by a scorching inswinger. Manor struggled to get going and the Pinner fielders took great pleasure counting every dot ball. If we were two year olds, we'd have had a gold star up on the fridge this week from proud mummy and daddy for counting to 19.

There were too many Doom Bars inside Nicholas Lawrence by Saturday night which prevented him from taking a picture of the 2nd innings scorecard for me, so the rest of this is purely from selective memory, a medical condition that afflicts all club cricketers of course. Salman and Kunal were brought on and they continued the good work and picked wickets. Pinner had Manor 7 down for not many and it looked like a cakewalk until Manor's number 9 took a liking to our spinners and starting smashing them all over the place. Kavit unfortunately was the targeted bowler, going for 56 from 4 overs (see how I remembered that detail?) and suddenly the target seemed gettable. Salman swooped on the ball and hit the stumps direct from cover to run out the dangerous batsman by a couple of yards, except that he was given not out. In the middle of all this, Ro put in a spectacular dive at deep midwicket but couldn't quite hold on to a catch at deep midwicket. He later informed us the he "was over the ropes anyway". Hmm... does that sound as fishy to you as it does to me? Felix was then brought back on and it only took him a few deliveries to get the dangerous batsman out, bowled. No fuss. Pinner wrapped things up by 50 or so runs. A good preseason wrapped up and we now look forward to hosting Watford Town 3s at the MCG next week for League game number 1. Come on the Lambs!!!

Player of the match: Raj 'time is money' Venkar for a fantastic 41 and a fine running catch at deep fine leg

Dick of the day: The award stays in the Dixit household - Kavit Dixit leaving his whites at Headstone Manor and then even worse, proceeding to make fatal error number four - telling me about it. He was back at Headstone Manor on Sunday to collect them.
Thanks to: Scorer and Mr. President Alan Kay

Pinner Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 40w 3b 4lb 
for 10 wickets
51
217		     
Rohitesh Dhawan lbw Panneerselvan 29 44 3 65.91 1
Hari Ramachandran b Panneerselvan 15 20 3 75.00 1
Kavit Dixit ct Bamaniya b Panneerselvan 4 7 1 57.14
Nick Lawrence b J. Savani 33 42 3 78.57 1
Omkar Xetenarvencar ct Bamaniya b J. Savani 21 34 2 1 61.76
Sal Moeeniddin lbw Bamaniya 0 9 0
Jack Tucker lbw J. Savani 5 12 41.67
Raj Vernekar Not Out  41 42 6 97.62 2
Kunal Gandhi b J. Savani 0 3 0
Felix Hoh ct J. Savani b Stanley 4 25 16.00 1
Daniel Langan ct Bamaniya b Panneerselvan 14 21 2 66.67

Headstone Manor Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
K. Savani6.011800.003.00
P. Vakil3.002300.007.67
M. Pancholi5.002500.005.00
V. Panneerselvan6.3045411.256.92
J, Savani9.012746.753.00
R. Bamaniya7.0045145.006.43
R. Stanley8.0027127.003.38

Headstone Manor Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 27w 1b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
30
163 (39.3 overs)		     
B. Gajipra ct Hoh b Moeeniddin 7
R. Radia b Hoh 0
M. Pancholia ct Dhawan b Moeeniddin 19
R. Savani lbw Moeeniddin 1
V. Savani ct Ramachandran b Gandhi 0
R. Bamaniya b Hoh 73
R. Stanley ct Vernekar b Langan 5
P. Vakil Run out  16
K. Savani ct Vernekar b Hoh 5
J. Savani Not Out  2
V. Panneeselvan ct Lawrence b Dixit 5

Pinner Cricket Club Saturday 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jack Tucker9.041200.001.33
Felix Hoh6.002137.003.50
Sal Moeeniddin7.021535.002.14
Kunal Gandhi6.0017117.002.83
Daniel Langan6.0031131.005.17
Kavit Dixit4.3056156.0012.44
Nick Lawrence1.00900.009.00