Week 3 Lords SCCL Premier Division Roundup
By Jamie Dowley
Relief for Shelton, while big guns carry on winning.
A round of fixtures that won’t live long in the memory bank with six fairly one sided games, but there were still some quality performances around the county, with the 3 unbeaten sides all recording straightforward wins.
Shelton raced to their first win of the season with a fairly convincing low scoring victory over Newtown. Electing to bat first, away captain Ben Price was an early departure as was makeshift opener Nathan Smith, with Sam Griffiths (3-19) particularly impressing with the new ball. Despite an aggressive 34 from Jordan Baijinath, it was then over to Ryan Cumming (pictured) and Ross Griffiths to run through the Newtown batting, Cumming exerting plenty of control with 2-17, while Griffiths proving what a quality bowler he is at this level with 4-35. With Pabel Saha (27) and Viv John (51) getting the home chase off to a flyer the game looked done and dusted but a flurry of late wickets meant they only got the victory with 4 wickets left as Griff Davies excelled with 4-14 for Newtown.
Shelton captain Jack Morris “it was a much needed win for us and a relief to finally get off minus points. We are yet to put together a complete batting and bowling performance but when we do I’m confident we will be climbing the table. We have come up against 2 exceptional overseas so far in our 2 defeats, but we have a very good one ourselves who we know can perform. This win gets us back in the mix and it’s onto Whitchurch next week”
I was at Heath Rd where umpires Paul Evans and Glenn Robson shrewdly offered to reduce the match to 40 overs (rule 32.2.6) to which captains Dan Vaughan and Mike Robinson agreed, and it was Wellington who dodged the rain to record a DLS victory against Whitchurch. Batting first, Jason Oakes was promoted to open and duly delivered with a chanceless 101, while David Laird again looked in superb form with a quick 58, as the visitors reached 234-6 off their 40. The home reply stuttered immediately despite a breezy 20 from Elliot Bowen on his seasonal re-appearance. At 55-5 off 12 overs, heavy rain stopped play for 90 minutes a situation that would have had Dan Vaughan worried but credit to the groundstaff as eventually they were able to go back out, Whitchurch finishing on 121-7. Laird and Oakes both completed fine games with 3-21 and 2-42 respectively although the latter did take some punishment from Kunal Dabas who struck 41.
Dan Vaughan “we were pretty relieved to get out there and get the points on the board, shout out to Whitchurch who were happy to make a game of it, they were very good hosts and it was a good spirited game”
Allscott Heath would have been slightly concerned in having to chase a Sentinel total of 187 especially as the visitors had been 99-6 at one stage before Connor Cheshire (43) led a recovery. Earlier, Craig Williams made 26, while with the ball Brad Thornton continued his excellent start to the season with 3-29, and Matt Hutchings impressed with 3-15. In reply Callum Starling’s side cruised to victory in half the allotted overs, Jason Summers with 61no and Kuldeep Devatwal producing another imperious knock unbeaten on 67 as Sentinels bowling was wayward again this time bowling 30 wides. It’s a worrying start for Ed Ashlin's side with 3 straight defeats and they will be desperate for a win next time at fellow strugglers Shrewsbury 2nds.
Callum Starling “ I wasn’t too worried chasing that total as a par score here is 250, credit to Sentinel they consolidated well in the middle order. Jason was absolutely class with the bat and that gave us the platform to cruise home in the end. We are obviously very pleased with the start we have made this season”
Wem were missing several key performers but still had way too much class for Shrewsbury 2nds as the Abhishek Reddy show continues to roll on unabated. This time the Indian superstar made 150no in a team total of 332-1, with Sam Peate also helping himself to an unbeaten hundred and Shropshire opener Harry Chandler no doubt cursing himself for being the only man out for 45. With one eye on heavy rain up the road at Whitchurch, Jim Astley's side raced through the 20 overs needed to get a result with Ralph Davies impressing with 2-29 off 10 overs. In the end the bad weather failed to materialise and Astley (2-29) and debutant Tom Graves ( 2-25) closed out the Shrewsbury innings at 143ao. It's 60 from 60 for the Soulton Rd side as they continue their superb start to the season.
St Georges are finally into positive points territory after another quickfire win this time at Ludlow. The hosts were shot out for 110 with the opening bowlers Shah Fiaz and Ali Mustafa both striking early for a brace each, and Babar Khan then wrapping up the innings with a superb 5-14. The reply was a straightforward affair with Waqas Ahmed and Ashish Ashish both making 30 and Mohammed Aqeeb adding 29no, as the Dragons reached their target in 19 overs meaning sole umpire Mike Jenkins could put his coat away after only 50 overs of cricket in total.
Ludlow chairman Phil Parker “we were missing 5 players but have no complaints we were beaten by the better side. There seem to be 5 very good sides in the division and the rest of us are scrapping it out”
Finally, Quatt are starting to fire ahead of their big game at Wellington next week as they steamrollered a Madeley side who made 98ao. Only Oli Davis with 33 made an impression as James Lunn shuffled his bowlers with Scott Furber, Todd Henderson, Nipun Karunanayake and the captain himself each taking 2 wickets. Ryan Wheldon was the chief protagonist in the Quatt reply his unbeaten 40 meant his side cruised home by 8 wickets to complete a 2nd successive easy win.
So lets hope for some closer contests next time, the headline game will be Wellington v Quatt but equally important will be Shrewsbury 2nds v Sentinel with both teams keen to get a first win of the season. Also the League KO starts this Thursday. Check the website for all the fixtures.
