Thrilling Finish for the 3s at St Albans… But in Vain

In addition to the desperate search for parking at the venue, the other key pursuit for the team was a win in the league. Capt. Cody’s form with the toss held up and the right decision was to set a strong target for the St. Albans 2nd team.

A slow & cautious start meant a decent opening partnership of 37 runs between Hugh Walsh & Sam Read. A smart piece of stumping led to Hugh Walsh’s downfall when Rob Carter joined the other opener. A sensible innings from both the batsmen lead to a respectable partnership of 84 runs which is the highest of the season so far for the 3’s. S.Read was caught for a well compiled 39 in an urge to up the ante. Rob Carter continued to work diligently to score a very smart 51. At drinks, Hertford were perched in a commanding position of 134-3 off 34 overs, which by far is the best showing for the 3’s batsmen. However, a break in concentration led to Rob’s dismissal. Hesh Abeywickrema joined Alex Carter to build a partnership of 27 runs. However Hesh Abeywickrema's stay didn’t last long (16 runs) when he was caught behind fishing at a wide one. Michael Ives and Alex Carter tried to push the run rate further against a crafty bowling attack. Despite the consistent flow of runs, the boundaries didn’t come by easily for Hertford in the death overs leading to a total score of 225-4. Michael Ives (36) and Alex Carter (34) put on 64 runs for the 5th wicket. Though a comfortable score, a few in the camp felt that we were a few runs short.

St.Albans started cautiously against some tight bowling from Dave Beardsley who was unfortunate as a couple of catches were dropped off his bowling. Dave kept his head high despite these chances and finished with a commendable economy of 3/over. Zach West scored 32 but was trapped in front by Ross Murphy and the other opener was dismissed in a similar fashion by Shir Kumar for 16. What followed were regular dismissals, but Hertford failed to seize complete control of the game. Impaired by lose bowling and poor fielding meant St Albans were always in the game. A streaky 45 by the St. Albans No.3 kept the run rate in check. A fine spell from Ian Codd exerted some control and helped Hertford take the game to the final stretch. Wickets at regular intervals from Ross Murphy & Shri Kumar meant Hertford was still in with a good chance. However, R.O’Toole, the old-fox came in at No.9 and played a stellar innings of 47 to help see the team home. It is fair to summarise the key contributor for Hertford’s defeat was our fielding lapses, especially dropped catches. A silver lining was the bowling performances of Ross Murphy & Shri Kumar at 3 wickets a piece & the fine half-century from Rob Carter.

In summary, a match lost by Hertford rather than a convincing win for the opponents. Some strong performances with the bat & the ball are the key positives for us to take to next week’s home game against Radlett 3’s.

Author: Shri Kumar