Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club 2nd XI v Shenfield CC on Sat 22 Jun 2013 at 1pm

Scorecard

Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club 2nd XI v Shenfield CC on Sat 22 Jun 2013 at 1pm
Match was Drawn

Match report Wanstead 2s once again showed their battling spirit to gain a draw in the unlikeliest of circumstances against league leaders Shenfield.

Having lost the toss yet again (better start practising - Ed) Wanstead were asked to bat in bowler-friendly conditions and were soon reduced to 32-4 from 10 overs after some fine bowling from Shenfield's Mitchell Fenn. The top-order proved that failure is almost as accustomed to them as waking up in the morning. Mahesh Velani threw his weight around, scoring 18 from the first over he faced and 41 in total. He was well supported by cousin Nikunj Velani who scored a classy 53 before showing an obvious absence from the gym by failing to hit a slow full-toss beyond the short boundary.

At 152-9 from 40 overs Wanstead were in dire straits but Jack Lord (15*) and Sameem Shirzay (23) showed that perhaps a reversal of the order is necessary by taking the total to 186.

With lots of time to bat Shenfield were definitely favourites and would have won were it not for two double-wicket maidens from Azhar Janjua; one at the beginning of the innings and one at the death. The Shenfield openers started steadily until Azhar's hostile spell brought two wickets in quick succession. This brought Shenfield skipper Thomas Fulk to the crease to join Martin Allen (not the former West Ham star) at 40-2.

Some benign batting alongside disciplined bowling from Lord, Shirzay and Saurav Prabhaker meant that with 20 overs remaining Shenfield required 80 from the final 20 overs. They were even stronger favourites now but veteran Nugget and Saurav bowled superbly and Shenfield still required 50 from the last 8 overs. Nugget was targeted and was removed from the attack with Azhar (4-32) returning to rouse the 10-strong crowd with 2 wickets from his returning over. It was down to Prabhakar to bowl the final over with Shenfield needing 6 runs with 6 wickets in hand, and a great over it was with Shenfield only managing to score 1 run and losing 2 wickets in the process.

Wanstead had somehow managed to pull off a draw when it looked like a loss was on the cards. Top-scorer Nikunj Velani said after the match, "I was just finally happy to justify my selection in my own fantasy team. I was hoping to get a few more but was undone by the flight of a beautifully bowled full toss."

Joe Palmer, Captain

(That's a genuine quote from Velani ... honestly)

Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club 2nd XI Batting

Player Name		Runs	Ct	St
extras TOTAL :	for 10 wickets	0 186
Ismail Dar	Bowled	17	3	1
Saurav Prabhakar	Caught	9
Joe Palmer Jnr	Caught	2
Nikunj Velani	Caught	53
Stephen Ramdial	Lbw	0	1
Mahesh Velani	Caught	41
David Richardson	Caught	14
Azhar Janjua	Caught	0
Haseeb Chaudhri	Lbw	0
Jack Lord	Not Out	15
Sameem Shirzay	Bowled	23

Shenfield CC Bowling

Player name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
No records to display.

Shenfield CC Batting

Player name		R
extras TOTAL :	for 6 wickets	0 182 (46.0 overs)

Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club 2nd XI Bowling

Player Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
Azhar Janjua	11.0	1	32	4	8.00	2.91
Haseeb Chaudhri	6.0	1	24	0	0.00	4.00
Sameem Shirzay	6.0	1	25	0	0.00	4.17
Saurav Prabhakar	13.0	1	43	2	21.50	3.31
Jack Lord	5.0	0	21	0	0.00	4.20
David Richardson	5.0	0	28	0	0.00	5.60

Umpire :
Kenny Goult
Scorer :