Theale & Tilehurst vs RUASCC 2nd May 2004

Report by Fingers

With the wet weather that there had been all week and all games having been cancelled the day before it wasn't surprising that the pitch for this game was very wet at the start. Sometimes losing the toss on such a pitch can be a good thing, it's a very brave skipper that chooses to bat first but sometimes the pitch is easiest to bat on first before it starts drying out and becoming unpredictable.

James won the toss and like most skippers would have elected to field first. RUASCC had a new opening batsman in Zahid and from early on he showed aggressive intent and a good eye. This got them off to a good start with the opening partnership putting on 72 inside 16 overs. It was at this stage that Tahir was introduced to the attack and demonstrated something of a golden arm; first Zahid drove at a wide half volley and was caught by Os at point, this was soon followed by Patel gloving a leg side long hop to be well caught by wicket keeper Robertson.

Baker and Chan though initially kept the momentum going but between them Fingers and Imran managed to put a check on the scoring rate. The dismissals of both Baker and Malde followed to aggressive shots but following this Main supported by the rest of the lower order managed to pick up the scoring rate again to post a very good total of 220-7.

James and Rog got the T&T innings off to a good start in reply with the score 30-0 at the end of the eighth over. However, the ninth over proved to be something of a disaster. First Rog was caught at mid off for 21 trying to pick up the scoring rate. Dennis had been thumbing his nose at fate all afternoon by wearing his 2002/03 indoor league suicide squad winning t-shirt but it turned out to be fate that had the last word. James played the ball towards mid off and called Dennis through for a single, the direct hit must have left Dennis run out by about 5 yards. 35-2 at the end of the ninth over.

The poor running between the wickets was not over though. As if having seen the dismissal of Dennis as a challenge the winner of the 2003/04 indoor league suicide squad race Osman was run out in possibly even more stupid circumstances, standing outside his crease contemplating a third and not beating the throw back.

Following this the innings faded away. The pitch was getting tougher to play on as it started drying out and Prashant in particular with his excellent spin bowling was able to exploit the conditions. As it was the second highest partnership of the innings was that between Imran and Bob for the final wicket as Imran struck some late boundaries.

BERKSHIRE LEAGUE SCORECARD
Home Team		Theale and Tilehurst						Away Team		Reading University Staff
Date of Match		02 May 2004						Played at		Theale

		Team						pts	Result	Team				pts
Result		RUASCC							beat	Theale and Tilehurst				by 104 runs

1st Innings of		RUASCC												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	D Patel	ct			D Robertson			Tahir		2	0	18	1	2	0	1
2	Zahid	ct			O Mahmood			Tahir		5	1	57	2	3	0	2
3	Baker	lbw						B Cooper		2	0	17	3	6	0	1
4	C Malde	bowled						B Cooper		5	0	24	4	19	0	2
5	Dip Patel	run out								1	0	8	5	20	0	1
6	B Main	not out								2	1	35	6	21	0	2
7	J Tranter	run out								0	0	16	7	31	0	1
8	Manoj	run out								0	1	11	8	35	0	2
9	Prashant	not out								1	0	6	9	41	0	1
10	R Tranter	DNB											10	45	0	2
11	A Ashman	DNB											11	45	0	1
							Byes	8					12	52	0	2
							Leg Byes	7					13	57	0	3
							Wides	12					14	62	0	2
							No Balls	1					15	68	0	3
									Extras			28	16	72	1	4
													17	79	1	3
							Wickets	7	Total			220	18	81	2	4
													19	85	2	3
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20	96	2	4
1	O Mahmood		6	1	21	0							21	99	2	3
2	R Williams		7	0	35	0							22	110	2	4
3	N Khan		8	1	35	0							23	110	2	3
4	Tahir		4	0	28	2							24	111	2	5
5	B Cooper		8	0	23	2							25	119	2	3
6	I Mahmood		8	0	34	0							26	123	2	5
7	R Puri		3	0	25	0							27	127	2	3
8													28	128	3	5
													29	134	3	6
Fall of Wicket													30	138	4	5
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31	140	4	6
1	72	1				72							32	142	4	5
2	79	2				7							33	146	5	6
3	127	3				48							34	149	5	5
4	138	4				11							35	155	5	6
5	142	5				4							36	163	5	5
6	197	7				55							37	168	5	6
7	213	8				16							38	171	5	5
8													39	175	5	6
9													40	181	6	7
10													41	189	6	6
													42	194	7	7
													43	206	7	6
													44	220	7	7
													45
2nd Innings of		Theale and Tilehurst												Rate Per Over
	Name	How Out			Who			Bowler		4's	6's	Score		Score	W	Bwl
1	J Codd	ct			C Malde			Prashant		4	0	32	1	4	0	1
2	R Puri	ct			B Main			Manoj		4	0	21	2	6	0	2
3	D Robertson	run out								0	0	0	3	12	0	1
4	O Mahmood	run out								0	0	5	4	21	0	2
5	J Morris	ct			Baker			Baker		0	0	0	5	22	0	1
6	C Coldman	bowled						Prashant		0	0	4	6	27	0	2
7	Tahir	lbw						A Ashman		0	0	1	7	29	0	1
8	B Cooper	ct			D Patel			Prashant		0	0	4	8	30	0	2
9	N Khan	bowled						R Tranter		0	0	7	9	35	2	1
10	I Mahmood	not out								2	1	18	10	39	2	2
11	R Williams	ct			A Ashman			R Tranter		0	0	4	11	43	2	1
							Byes	5					12	43	2	2
							Leg Byes	0					13	46	2	1
							Wides	15					14	49	3	2
							No Balls	0					15	55	3	1
									Extras			20	16	55	4	2
													17	57	4	1
							Wickets	10	Total			116	18	62	4	2
													19	71	4	3
Bowling			O	M	R	W							20	75	5	4
1	Manoj		9	0	31	1							21	80	6	3
2	Baker		9	2	29	1							22	80	7	4
3	A Ashman		4	0	18	1							23	83	7	3
4	Prashant		6	2	13	3							24	86	7	4
5	R Tranter		2.5	0	17	2							25	88	7	3
6													26	92	8	4
7													27	96	9	5
8													28	97	9	4
													29	111	9	5
Fall of Wicket													30	111	9	4
	Score	Outgoing Bat				Stand of							31	116	10	5
1	34	2				34							32
2	35	3				1							33
3	49	4				14							34
4	55	5				6							35
5	72	1				17							36
6	76	7				4							37
7	80	6				4							38
8	88	8				8							39
9	96	9				8							40
10	116	11				20							41
													42
													43
													44
													45