Scorecard

Glenmore Cricket Club Glenmore Braves v St Johns II on Sun 01 Jul 2012 at 12pm
Glenmore Cricket Club Won 4 wickets

Match report Glenmore made it back-to-back league wins with a slightly stuttering run chase against St Johns II on sunday. Another excellent display in the field, and some great composure from the lower-middle order meant it was Glenmore celebrating once again at Inland Small.

With Jon Bray enjoying the golf/cricket/drinking of the Victoria tour, it was left to Alex Storey to take over captaincy duties for the day. He made a good start by winning the toss and inserting St Johns on what was becoming a warm, muggy day. St Johns had some absentees of their own as two of their players were playing a T20 match elsewhere and didn't arrive at Inland until almost 1.30pm. This meant their batting order had a somewhat upside-down look to it.

For second successive match the Glenmore energy and verve in the field was spot on from ball one. Everyone was alive and in the game. This sort of focus is extremely important for the bowlers and can be suffocating for the batsmen. Certainly the dangerous St Johns opener Russel had no answer to the early positivity, attempting a big shot off Bobby Gajendra but only managing to find Ruwan at point.

In the corresponding fixture last season Bobby produced an absolute peach to dismiss Dexter, and he was at it again this time around. Dexter is an obdurate batsman and it takes something special to beat his defence. Bobby swung it away from him and then it just nipped back a little to sneak between bat and pad and clip the off bail. This was another great delivery from Bobby and he continued to battle his flu-like symptoms to pick up Zeashan in his next over, caught calmly by Ryan Jenkinson at mid-off. Bobby eventually finished with exemplary figures of 5-3-7-3.

With St Johns struggling to score (most of their runs at this stage were coming through extras) Glenmore continued to turn the screw. Asad Gul bowled beautifully from the Stoney Trail end but without luck. His six overs were on the money and he definitely deserved a wicket. Ali Memon didn't have to wait long for his success, picking up Faruk with just his second delivery. Ali's rhythm was much improved from the last game and he was finding good pace and, more importantly, excellent areas. And, had not been for the butter fingers of Storey behind the stumps, Ali would have had three wickets. As it was, he ended with 1 for 15 from 8, and if he continues to bowl in that manner surely a lot more wickets will come.

Thankfully for Glenmore, Storey was able to hold onto a couple of chances behind the wickets. The first was off Nadeem Altaf, who produced a perfect out swinger to find the edge of Rohit's bat. The second was off the bowling of off-spinner Sandeep, who claimed the St John's skipper Sabeel. This was a great piece of bowling from Sandy, perfectly landing his wrong-'un to get the feather edge to the keeper. Sandy was proving extremely troublesome to the St Johns batsmen, finding turn and bounce, and offering very few scoring opportunities. He picked up his second wicket when Kamal holed out to Ruwan at mid-wicket. Amazingly this was Ruwan's 6th catch in just two matches.

Due to their late arrival, St John's two best batsmen came in at 8 and 9. On a hot day it was important Glenmore dug in and lifted themselves to finish the innings. Veenu and Kamil both batted well and showed some class, and it was beginning to look like they would drag St Johns total up to something intimidating. However, Rich Harvey made sure he finished the job. First his "quicker, short one" deceived Veenu (31), who offered up a caught and bowled chance, which Richy took at the third attempt. This left Kamil to blaze away as best he could, but he tried one shot too many and Harvey had him bowled for 22.

So, Glenmore had fifty overs in which to chase 119. An easy task when put in simple terms, but cricket is a funny game and there are no guarantees. And it was St Johns who were celebrating first when they picked up an early wicket; Ruwan adjudged caught behind off the left armer Kamil. Moments later the forecast rain hit and the teams took refuge in their cars. Glenmore 9 for 1.

Following the break Anand Gupta and Storey set about rebuilding the innings and setting a solid platform. There weren't too many big shots to enjoy, and runs were few and far between. However, the pair made sure they gave nothing away and concentrated hard. To be fair to St Johns, they were bowling well, with the spin of Veena proving particularly awkward to score from. The introduction of Kamal was a welcome relief to everyone as his first over conceded ten runs. However, his subsequent overs were far more accurate and he soon had Anand trapped lbw. The opener had only made 10 runs, but he and Storey had put on 50 and in low scoring match such a partnership is vital.

In cricket the saying goes that one wicket brings two. Well, in this case it brought four as the wheels fell off the Glenmore innings. First Storey (35) pulled a rare bad ball from Veenu straight to square leg. Sandeep (5) gave the bowler his second wicket, edging to slip. And Anjan was out for a duck, caught at slip on what appeared to be a bump-ball. This left Glenmore's top order all back on the sidelines, having crumbled from 59-1 to 66-5. The game was back in the balance and it was down to middle & and lower-middle order to win Glenmore the game.

Asad did his best to raise the tempo, clubbing Veenu for four back over his head, and running hard with Ryan Jenkinson. Sadly their understanding came to an end when Asad wanted a single and Ryan sent him back, leaving Asad well out of his ground.

With the captain becoming increasingly nervous, even resorting to a cigarette and a beer to calm himself, Bobby Gajendra strode to the middle. With 32 runs still needed, Bobby and Jenko produced a match winning, sensible, assured partnership. They took no chances against the left arm spin of Kamil, but picked up runs from the other end. Bobby was solid in defence while Ryan was more aggressive and quick to seize on scoring opportunities. They run well between the wickets and their positivity finished off any hopes St Johns had of a victory. Eventually Glenmore cantered to their total in some style. Jenkinson picking Kamal up over mid-on for four, and shortly afterwards leg glancing Abid to the fine leg boundary. Ryan ended up on 30 not out, which was a fantastic knock in the circumstances, and Bobby was undefeated on 6. Their partnership was precisely what the team needed and gave Glenmore the 6 points they so desperately wanted.

Although this wasn't the perfect display from Glenmore, it was a strong, gutsy win again built on a superb team ethic. Everyone in the side contributed something to the victory, and it was great to see guys step up and make their mark. Ali Memon bowled fantastically, as did Bobby and Sandy. Anand showed plenty of bottle at the top of the order, as did Ryan and Bobby in the closing overs. This Glenmore team is showing itself to be a tough, resilient, talented unit, with a fantastic, positive spirit. The response of the team whenever catches went down perhaps best demonstrates this. After each dropped catch the team rallied around the fielder (or wicketkeeper), picked them up and got on with the game. If the same positivity remains throughout the summer it could be a great season for the club.

St Johns II Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
25w 4b 5lb 
for 9 wickets
34
118 (35.0 overs)		     
Russel Ramjattan ct  Ruwan b Gajendra 0
Dexter Ramoutar b  b Gajendra 1
Zeashan ct  Jenkinson b Gajendra 4
Faruk ct  Ruwan b Memon 5
Rohit Sood ct  Storey b Altaf 10
Sabeel ct  Storey b Sahota 8
Kamal ct  Ruwan b Sahota 1
Veenu ct  c & b Harvey 31
Kamil b  b Harvey 22
Abid Not Out  2
   

Glenmore Cricket Club Glenmore Braves Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Bobby Gajendra5.03732.331.40
Asad Gul6.011900.003.17
Ali Memon8.0215115.001.88
Nadeem Altaf3.00313.001.00
Sandeep Sahota8.0123211.502.88
Ryan Jenkinson2.001900.009.50
Richard Harvey3.0023211.507.67

Glenmore Cricket Club Glenmore Braves Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
17w 2b 1lb 
for 6 wickets
20
120		        
Anandaroop Gupta lbw  Kamal 10
Ruwan Thushantha ct  Russel b Kamil 4 1 3
Alex Storey ct  b Veenu 35 1 2
Anjandeep Singh ct  b Kamal 0
Sandeep Sahota ct  b Veenu 5
Ryan Jenkinson Not Out  30 4 1
Asad Gul Run out  10 1
Bobby Gajendra Not Out  6 1
Nadeem Altaf  
Ali Memon  
Richard Harvey   1

St Johns II Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Abid7.012200.003.14
Kamil10.0225125.002.50
Rohit Sood4.21500.001.15
Veenu10.021929.501.90
Zeashan3.001100.003.67
Kamal7.0031215.504.43

  • Umpire :
    CHCC 2
  • Scorer :
 
Photos and video of Glenmore Cricket Club Glenmore Braves v St Johns II on Sun 01 Jul 2012 at 12pm

01 Bobby Bowling.jpg

Bobby opening the bowling

02 Bobby Bowling.jpg

Bobby finds his line and length

03 Russell shot.jpg

Russell plays one shot too many

04 Ruwan catch.jpg

Ruwan holds onto another catch

05 Wicket celebrations.jpg

Team huddle in celebration

06 Three slips.jpg

Three slips and a gully for Bobby's bowling

07 Two Slips.jpg

The slip cordon awaits

08 Dexter out.jpg

Celebrations after Bobby clean bowls Dexter

09 Anand Defend.jpg

Anand making sure we keep wickets in hand

10 Storey pull.jpg

Storey picks up a couple with a pull

11 Anand spin.jpg

Anand faces the off spinner

12 Running.jpg

Anand and Storey jog a single

13 Jenko Beer.jpg

Ryan celebrating Canada Day

14 Chat.jpg

The boys relax in the sunshine

14 Ryan defends.jpg

Ryan keeps his head as the game nears it's climax

15 Bobby Defends.jpg

Bobby stays calm as we edge towards victory

16 Jenko pull.jpg

Jenko takes the attack to St Johns