Harpenden Dolphins C.C.

Scorecard

Harpenden Dolphins C.C. v Greenwood Park on Sat 09 Jul 2011 at 1pm
Harpenden Dolphins C.C. Won by 6 wkts

Match report Dolphins restrict Greenwood Park to modest total.

Dolphins were at home this week hosting local rivals Greenwood Park. GP were very keen and youthful, most of the team arrived before any Dolphins arrived. The toss once again favoured Dolphins and we decided to let them have a bat on notorious Rothamstead Park pitch!!
Unfortunately Roland was not available to play against his old club, however with good availability of batsman we fancied chasing any target.
Schalke and Ron opened the bowling with a fantastically tight spell. Their openers not quite sure what to make of Schalke who was virtually unplayable apart from the odd snick drive to deep third man. As a result the openers decided to take on Ron, big mistake as their first opener mis-timed a lofted drive to Tom at mid off. The other opener then nicked a forward defensive shot into Mike's gloves. Dolphins were gathering momentum as Ron and Schalke continued to keep the run rate to a little over 2 an over. Schalke frustrated their number 3 who his a drive straight back at Schalke it went through his hands, hit his chest and he caught it on the 2nd attempt. WELL HELD! The bowling was supported by some fantastic fielding by the Rayner brothers in the cover point area, together with some good support by Duncan at gully and Usain at third man. Shortly after drinks a very heavy rain shower meant approximately 40 mins was lost to rain. Greenwood Park's amount of overs reduced to 47 and Dolphins to 41. The bowler's footfall areas were affected by the rain shower, so Ron and Scalke were replaced by the slower Zippy and Tom. Zippy mesmerised the GP batsman with his 'wibblies and wobblies' drawing chances galore. One batsman who was desperate to get off strike prodded one to mid-wicket and set off in desperate hope of a single, a clean pick up from the youthful Tom (Roche not Jubb) and good gloves by Mike saw the non striker stranded. The next batsman thought it would be better to hit out and pulled a ball to deep square leg to find the younger and more athletic Rayner brother racing in to take the catch cleanly at waist height. The next piece of Zippy magic surpassed his 4-0 spell at Monken Hadley, and perhaps he may have seen something similar by Schalke at Bovingdon. Zippy having bowled a well flighted delivery as he faced towards cover point with his follow through, he saw the ball hit into the air towards mid on. He changed direction immediately and dived full stretch to his right (Seaman-like), grasping the ball tightly in his finger tips and managed to hold on it, as his significant body mass crashed into the ground. The look on Zippy's face, reminiscent of Usain a few weeks earlier, was a picture to behold, followed by a huge broad smiling grin of satisfaction. WHAT A CATCH!
A spirited attack by the GP lower order in the last 5 overs saw them score 143 -7, however on the penultimate ball, the older and less energetic Rayner brother Chris.

To say we tea'd well was an understatement, and a fantastic debut for Kelly and her friend 'Kiwi' Claire. There were delicious double decker sandwiches and wonderful selection of homemade cakes. The lemon fairy cakes were exceptional.(There goes all those hours of winter training!!)

With a strong batting line up, Dolphins got off to another good start by Ant and Mike, however there were assisted by an extraordinary number of extras, 1No Ball and 9 Wides before runs were scored off the bat. The score moved onto 37 before Ant was given LBW in the 10th over, Mike and Chris continued at the same rate until Mike was given LBW 89-2 in the 21st over. Some fine cricket shots from both players finding the boundary easily. A change of bowling saw two wickets fall in quick succession. Chris pulled a shot to mid wicket straight to the fielder and Duncan couldn't resist a wide ball that he cut straight to the fielder at point. So Duncan left the crease wondering why he played that shot so early and even more importantly what he would look like wearing the yellow 'duck 'cap next week!

Dolphins 91- 4 after 21.5overs with both Schalke and Bonney at the crease on 0.

Were we in for a Dolphin wobble?

Not likely!

Schalke 34no and Bonney 14no saw us home with 8 overs to spare and both looked in total control with powerfully struck shots.

Nearly 300 runs scored in 71 overs!

A great day for cricket and even better day for Dolphins.

Greenwood Park Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
143 (0.0 overs)		     
K Gloudemans ct  M Lacey, Giovanni 15
M Baker ct  Roche, Giovanni 13
S Nash ct  Van Der Merwe, Van Der Merwe 7
C Kent run out  (Roche) 16
S Russell b  Roche 37
A Shetty ct  A Rayner, G Downes 3
J Otter ct  G Downes, G Downes 0
E Gray Not Out  25
A Calder Not Out  8
Lee  
Ahmed  

Harpenden Dolphins C.C. 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Schalk Van Der Merwe14.0230130.002.14
Ron Giovanni15.0537218.502.47
Graham Downes8.0127213.503.38
Tom Roche10.0042142.004.20

Harpenden Dolphins C.C. 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
144		        
Ant Rayner lbw  Shetty 13 1
Mike Lacey lbw  Gray 28 1
Chris Rayner ct  Nash, Lee 31
Schalk Van Der Merwe Not Out  34 1
Duncan Lewis ct  Ahmed, Lee 0
Paul Bonney Not Out  14
Amit Mathur  
Ron Giovanni  
Graham Downes  
Neil Bolt  
Tom Roche   1 1

Greenwood Park Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Calder7.304200.005.60
Shetty6.0025125.004.17
Ahmed4.011900.004.75
Gray6.0126126.004.33
Lee5.021527.503.00
Nash2.001200.006.00