Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club

Scorecard

Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club BU11s v South Woodford (Group B) on Wed 01 Jul 2015 at 6pm
Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club Won by 38 runs

Match report After two months of evening cricket on a Wednesday night at Fairlop, the crunch game was upon us. Wanstead v South Woodford. To fully understand this game, one needs to digest the context. These sides are local to each other, so the players go to school together, they play in the same Essex sides together, they play in the same District sides together, they have trained together in the winter. There is familiarity. There have been recent fixtures; the indoor season was decided between these two clubs (in South Woodfords favour); the Nasser Hussein 40 over competition last year was a tight affair (in Wansteads favour).

The parents on the boundary know each other, sometimes they are on the same side, sometimes they aren't. There were maybe 50 people watching last night. (This is a lot for Fairlop, trust me). My point is, it is fair to say there is rivalry....

This game was the last one of the 2015 evening league. Both teams were unbeaten. Close observers of the league had inked in this fixture a month ago as the deciding contest. It was all set up.

It was also hot. The hottest day for 9 years, so one thing was for sure - no player had ever played cricket in hotter conditions, the oldest of them was 11 after all.

Wanstead won the toss and sensibly chose to bat. It was too hot to field, and the approach had worked all season. We got off to a flying start, making 60-0 off the first nine overs with Beth and Pavan batting sensibly and accelerating where necessary. Pavan was eventually run out for a robust 35, shortly followed by Beth for 24. Our batting then demonstrated its depth, with Thinod, Kabelan, Tom, Sam, Harry, Krishan and Neil all attacking selflessly against quality county standard spinners, and running hard. We lost a few wickets, but that wasn't the point, we had a target in mind. We set South Woodford a target of 123. This felt a bit lower than perhaps was possible at one point, but the team was determined to defend it.

South Woodford got off to a flying start, hitting 23 off the first 3 overs with the quicker shorter ball being punished hard. To our immense credit here we kept our nerve, and kept our shape in the field, and slowed it right down with Beth and Kabelan putting the brakes on and Beth taking the vital opening wicket. Once the pressure had been applied, South Woodford found themselves needing 77 off the last 8 overs. They started to attack and the wickets began to fall, a lightning fast stumping by Sam off the bowling of Krishan; and the tight bowling of Neil removed their number 3. A lethal piece of fielding delivered a run out, and Harry hit the stumps late on.

Despite all the individual successes here, the core of the victory came from the fielding - we saved the single by being tight enough, and we guarded the boundary by being deep enough. We kept our shape relentlessly, and there were countless excellent pieces of individual competitive commitment, from Joab and Henry in particular, as well as Tom close in and Krishan and Neil on the boundary. This was all backed up by superb keeping from Sam. In total we only gave away 10 extras.

So, if you are still reading - we won! And so we won the league! South Woodford eventually closed out 20 overs on 85/5. Much credit is due to them for the way they came back into it when we were 60-0 off 9, and they way they attacked the target early on.

This game finished a campaign of nine victories out of nine where 19 players have contributed, with all players bowling or batting in all games apart from the last one. We have done our best to involve everyone, and also win. This is quite a feat. Thanks are of course due to all parents to getting their kids to Fairlop for 6pm on a Wednesday, again - quite a feat!

This was my last evening league game, having gone to fairlop for the last three years. The league is an excellent institution, with ten teams and therefore around 110 players playing 9 competitive games over the early summer. What possible better introduction to younger players to the hard ball game? This last deciding game this year, which was the highest quality, was an absolute credit to this league.

Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club BU11s Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
8nb 11w 9b  
for 8 wickets
28
123		        
Pavan Patel Run out  35 5
Bethany Chambers Bowled  26 3
Thinod Balage Don Run out  7
Kabelan Mangaleswaran Bowled  5 1
Tom Bentley Bowled  8 2
Samuel Hurwitz Bowled  9 1
Harry Evans Bowled  4
Krishan Arawwawala Caught  0
Neil Patel Not Out  5 1
Joab Millie Not Out  0
Henry Lethbridge  

South Woodford (Group B) Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

South Woodford (Group B) Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 2w 1b 3lb 
for 5 wickets
10
85 (20.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club BU11s Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Tom Bentley3.002000.006.67
Harry Evans3.0012112.004.00
Bethany Chambers4.0013113.003.25
Kabelan Mangaleswaran3.00900.003.00
Neil Patel4.0017117.004.25
Krishan Arawwawala3.0111111.003.67