Scorecard

Portsmouth & Southsea Cricket Club 3rd XI v Curdridge on Sat 15 Jul 2017 at 2.00pm
Portsmouth & Southsea Cricket Club Won by 159 runs

Match report Portsmouth & Southsea III v Curdridge

Saturday 15th July

Laurel & Hardy
Lennon & McCartney
Kylie & Jason
Naveed & Muthuraman
All great things are built on great partnerships


I failed miserably with my first duty as captain by losing the toss. We were put into bat in windy conditions under dark clouds on a firm but greenish wicket. Friend of the club Matt Scott filled a late vacant position and opened up and saw off the first over. Gary was to face the second bowler who turned out to be the pick of their team. Unfortunately for Gary he got a grubber and was caught in the covers without a score to his name. Ben arrived and looked good but was bowled for 7. That brought Ryan to the crease, another friend that stepped in as we were short. Ryan left one that seemed last second and removed his off stump. Matt was doing a brilliant job of seeing off the very rapid Jaynes and in one over hit him for 18 runs including the biggest 6 that I have ever seen at the ground. Sathish has joined Matt at this point and is playing sensibly and keeping the score ticking over. Matt feathers a wide one and although wasn’t given out, he rightly walks. His score of 32 was very important but what was more vital were the 7 overs of bowling he saw off from their main bowler. At this stage we are 48/4 and things are looking ominous. Qasir joins Sats in the middle and they knuckle down to try and bring stability to the innings. Sathish eventually plays across the line and is given out LBW for 14. We are 69/5 and still 6 overs shy of drinks. As the tail start to pad up Karthik joins Qasir and the rebuild begins. Singles and two’s are taken for the first few overs. Then the odd boundary is added but at no point did this partnership look anything but calculated. At drinks we are 95/5. I had a word in the ear of Qasir and told him that he would have a ton if he sees out the innings. Easier said than done of course. After drinks, it’s more of the same. Sensible batting and quick running. Qasir wouldn’t be Qasir if the odd air bound shot wasn’t hit and he was lucky on a few occasions as he was dropped at long off and extra cover. A few sixes were added and he had his 50. Karthik was going along nicely and was playing a very mature role in holding the partnership together and keeping Qasir as grounded as you can keep him. Karthik eventually fell for 35 out LBW trying to sweep. Very important innings. A partnership of over 100 runs has completely changed the face of the game and taken the wind out of Curdridge. Harrison walks out with us now on 176 with 11 overs left in the game. Qasir, now unchaperoned, starts to hit out and Harrison doesn’t take long to catch the bug. Harrison played some beautiful strokes and complimented Qasir perfectly. Qasir baby is now in his mid 90’s and the rest of the team are on their feet waiting for the inevitable. Sathish and Pete are scoring at this point and they have different totals for Qasir. Before they have time to sort it Qasir is bowled for 99. As he walks back a frantic countback and double check takes place by the scorers and he did indeed get his ton. It was a brilliant innings full of the normal Qasir magic and big hitting but also mixed with maturity and professionalism to get the team thru a very tricky part of the game. 243/7, maximum batting points in the bag now to try and get a total that Curdridge can’t reach. Harrison is still scoring freely and puts on a brilliant 41 before being trapped in front. Dinesh adds a quick for before being bowled and I flick 1 down leg leaving Pete ‘not out’ Northeast on strike to face the last 3 balls of the innings. Curdridge are top of the league, our main rival, so we decide to starve them of a bowling point and see out the innings. We finish 256/9. We are amazing. We are the 3’s.

We are as loud and buoyant in the field as I can remember and we have 7 bowlers if we need them and I intended to use short sharp spells to really go after the deflated Curdridge. Karthik and Qasir open up the attack and bowl brilliant tight lines with varying length and the openers can’t get it off the square. After 10 over they are 29/1. Matt and Harrison are next up and deliver more of the same. Harrisons first 3 balls are wide, wide, wicket. Lovely. The week before their danger man hit 164 so when Matt cleaned him up for 3 we were ecstatic. Matt added another scalp to his name during his spell and he and Harrison had bowled brilliantly. With the sun shining and 60 over ball on show, it’s time for the spin twins. Pete and I took an end each but it really was a one man show. Pete bowling 4-14 including a brilliant c&b and at one point on a hatrick. We were amazing in the field for the whole innings and only put one tricky chance down at long off. Special mention for Satish that was my pick of the fielders, brilliant display. Ryan replaced Pete and cleaned up the final 2 wickets with impressive stats of 3.4-0-10-2. We had restricted Curdridge to 97. Everyone bowled brilliantly. Everyone fielded exceptionally. We had maximum points, they had 6, it was one of my best days in cricket.

Special thanks to Matt and Ryan for helping us out with bat, ball and in the field. Really hope you fancy another game soon. Thanks to Dinesh who kept wicket as Tom was injured and kept it so well you’d be forgiven for thinking he kept every week. Thanks to Neil, the 4th team for skipper for offering Harrison to us, he was a massive factor in this victory. Finally thanks to all the players for making my first game as skipper one to remember. It was so easy because you all played so well.

Man of the match – Qasir Naveed 100 runs and the wicket of their opening bat.

Champagne moment – Pete Northeast caught and bowled and his whole spell in general

PS. We are top of the league say we are top of the league!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Portsmouth & Southsea Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
256		        
Gary Williams Caught  0
A.N. Other Caught  32
Ben Miles Bowled  7 1
Ryan Atkins Bowled  1
Sathish Venkatraman Lbw  14 1
Qasir Naveed Bowled  100 8 3
Karthik Muthuraman Lbw  35 6
Harrison Whitworth Lbw  41 6
Sam Richards Not Out  1
Dinesh Kumar Bowled  4
Pete Northeast Not Out  0

Curdridge Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Curdridge Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
97 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Portsmouth & Southsea Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Karthik Muthuraman5.01900.001.80
Qasir Naveed5.0013113.002.60
A.N. Other5.0020210.004.00
Harrison Whitworth4.0013113.003.25
Pete Northeast5.001443.502.80
Sam Richards6.011700.002.83
Ryan Atkins3.401025.002.73