Scorecard

Harold Wood Cricket Club Indoor (Met.) A Team v Hainault & Clayhall on Sat 26 Jan 2013 at 11am
Harold Wood Cricket Club Won by 5 wickets

Match report by Chris Bennett

Harold Wood match reports have been few and far between in the last month or so due to a shocking downturn in form. Lowlights including being hit for 180 in one match and being bowled out for 50 in another.

Harold Wood had 3 matches left to secure their top flight status for next year and realised that today was a must win against Hainault and Clayhall.

Shahzad Hafeez surprisingly won a toss and decided that the Wood’s strength laid in chasing, perhaps backing the batting rather than bowling of the rejinked side.

Razor got the Wood off to a flyer in the first over with 4 legside wides and 15 comfortably scored off the over. Unfortunately bowling did not get much better and the Wood failed to take advantage of the swinging ball. Sadly the fielding was of a similar level. Waqas attempting to take out Chris behind the stumps by launching the ball at him from around 3 foot away typified this. This obviously rattled the good looking and young keeper, consequently his keeping suffered as a result with the swinging ball resulting in a rather shabby keeping display.

Harold Wood were unlucky in the field with catching opportunities failing to bounce in our favour. The highlight of the bowling performance was a hostile spell from Abdul Rehman, culminating in him repeatedly bouncing an 8 year old to cement his place as the side’s “big scary fast bowler”.

Hainault and Clayhall eventually posted 166 with the Wood eventually taking a few wickets towards the end of the innings. A challenging total against the swinging ball.

Craig and Chris opened the innings with the former attempting to hit the third ball of the over into Kent, succeeding only in missing the ball by around a foot. This was a clear sign of intent and the Wood’s opening partnership was worth 70 off only 22 legitimate balls (helped by running 3s off legside wides).

Chris retired a few balls after Sampson in the 4th over of the innings. Razor looked particularly scratchy before unleashing hell towards the end of his innings. Abdul was the only wicket to fall, having excited the crowd by playing what can only be described as a couple of switch-hit-hooks off one knee.

The pleasantly plump skipper and Waqs guided the Wood home with the later playing a version of French cricket lost on the traditionalists.

The batting performance could be seen to be the strongest seen by a Harold Wood side in 2013 thus far with the Wood racking up 167-1 from 8.4 overs. Heaven only knows what score would have been totalled had the Wood batted first.

The team celebrated by going to Kebabish in Seven Kings. Notable events from lunch are as follows:

- Craig being offered "herbal remedy" by a random man in the restaurant
- Craig discovering WhatsApp
- Chris ordering too much
- Shahzad ordering too little
- Razor pretending to have forgotten his money

Harold Wood will be looking to secure their survival on 16 February against Ilford. There will be a match report if we win.

Hainault & Clayhall Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 5 wickets
0
166 (12.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   

Harold Wood Cricket Club Indoor (Met.) A Team Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Harold Wood Cricket Club Indoor (Met.) A Team Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 1 wickets
0
167		        
Craig Sampson  
Chris Bennett  
Raihan Hussain  
Abdul Rehman  
Shahzad Hafeez  
Waqas Shafique  

Hainault & Clayhall Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.