Petts Wood v St Lukes - friendly 02/05/09
Report by Robin Ford
St Lukes 2nd XI travelled to Petts Wood for a pre-season friendly – a timed game. Petts Wood Tudor won the toss and chose to bat. Apart from the first over (12 runs scored) Sultan and Shauks settled down into a good rhythm and were bowling well. Sultan made the breakthrough when the hosts were on 20 but St Lukes were not able to capitalise. Petts Wood Tudor’s second wicket of 91 put them on top, a stand broken with an excellent catch by Nisar on the boundary off the bowling of Robin. Two overs later Robin trapped top scorer Lockett LBW for 55 and went on to record figures of 8-0-36-2. However, the scoreboard continued to tick over and despite Sultan taking another two wickets in his second spell, Petts Wood Tudor declared at tea on a formidable 171-5. Sultan ended with 13-5-42-3 and Shauks bowled better than his figures of 9-1-37-0 suggest. Newcomers Kumar and Kalyan had 6 overs between them and showed promise for the future.
St Lukes reply was, to be frank, pathetic. The bowling was not dangerous but it was tight and Jaffar soon lost patience skying a catch. The next ball Kalyan was bowled for a golden duck and St Lukes were no runs for 2 wickets - not the best of starts. Wasif was next to go scoring 8 and with St Lukes now only 15-3 it was left to Adam and Kumar had to dig in to get the innings underway. They put on a stand of 29, Adam top scoring with 19, but despite several players chipping in with a few runs, St Lukes never really looked like they would save the game, all thoughts of winning had long gone. There was a brief stand of 16 towards the end of the innings between Shauks (11 not out) and Sultan (6) but St Lukes were well beaten making 79 all out and losing by 92 runs.
Considering the circumstances Wasif did very well as stand-in skipper and Raj performed well behind the stumps.
Man of the Match – Sultan for a good bowling performance.
Despite a poor defeat everyone showed enthusiasm and enjoyed the game, and the new players all settled in well. However, batsmen must be more patient and not give their wickets away so easily. Fielding was good but a couple of chances were put down and this will make a difference in league cricket, so there are some things to work on.
One important issue which must be addressed is the lack of volunteers confident to umpire and do the scorebook. Several players have been playing for a few years now and they must take responsibility for umpiring at both square leg and the bowler’s end. As for scoring, players must watch those who can score and learn. With a bit of concentration scoring is very easy and players must try to learn. It puts a great strain on the captain if only two or three players can umpire or score.