Scorecard

Amersham v Cookham Dean Cricket Club Friendly 1st XI on Sun 27 Jun 2021 at 1pm
Cookham Dean Cricket Club Lost by 4 runs

Match report After a week off for the village cup, Cookham Dean Friendly XI returned to action against a strong Amersham team on Sunday. After a week of turmoil in the camp with a proposed intraclub match being cancelled and a record breaking 9 dropouts (you know who you all are!), fixture secretary Jonny Gay (a player in this match), settled on a fixture against Home Counties Division 2 side Amersham, as Cookham set their sites on a mythical ‘5 win weekend’.

With the weather forecast looking dismal for most of the afternoon many of Cookham’s players arrived clearly not expecting to get much of a game in. When captain Isaac Richardson lost the toss (again!), Cookham were reluctantly put into the field, as memories began flooding back of last season’s 140 run defeat to the same opponents. Richardson’s older brother Jake once again threatened to withdraw his services if this run of bowling first on a Sunday continued.

Frazer Finlan and Yeshua Bhatti took the new ball as Amersham got off to a steady start. However, the hosts never got away from Cookham early on and Bhatti got the breakthrough in the 10th over with the score on 44. First change bowler Ben Ralphs enter the attack, having been denied the new ball due to his late arrival (one of many Cookham players too fall foul of the 1.30pm typo on the initial team sheet) and quickly picked up a couple of wickets to reduce the home side to 73-3. Graham Rance (an elegant Mike Atherton type batter) and Toby Ferneyhough then put together a strong partnership as Amersham began to accelerate through the halfway point of their innings, with Ralphs and fellow change bowler Mark Pateman beginning to go for a few runs. Returning Cookham Dean legend Dan ‘The Count’ Matthews (if you don’t know why he has that nickname, don’t ask) entered the attack and broke the partnership with a crucial wicket, bringing the score to 147-4 around the 27th over. James Milligan bowled tidily from the pavilion end and picked up a couple of wickets of his own, as Cookham kept the scoring rate below 6 an over. Ben Ralphs returned for the final over and picked up 2 wickets, giving him final figures of 4-46 from 7 overs (despite his insistence that he wanted the match ball for his efforts, captain Richardson cruelly denied him this privilege). Amersham ended on 216-8 off their 40 overs.

In response Cookham opted for an attacking opening pair with Jake Richardson and Rob Mettler entrusted to try and break the back of the chase. They duly obliged and got Cookham off to a flyer with both racking up 50s on their way to an 118-run stand. However, the match turned on a controversial incident. Mettler came down the track to Shabbir and missed the ball, presenting a stumping opportunity to keeper Nguyen, however the keeper appeared to take 2 attempts to dislodge the bails and Mettler felt he had made his ground. The home side went up for a strong appeal and all eyes turned to square leg umpire Frazer Finlan, however sadly Finlan’s eyes appeared not to have been on this decisive incident! In the face of this loud appeal Finlan sheepishly raised his finger.

In true Cookham Dean style, Cookham then collapsed with Jake Richardson and then Jonny Gay falling in quick succession to reduce Cookham to 130-3. Rumours swirled of Gay throwing his bat across the changing rooms following his dismissal. With two new batsmen at the crease the scoring rate slowed as Amersham started to squeeze. Lashvein Srisankar played a number of classy looking shots but was unlucky not to find the gaps before falling for 1. With Cookham needing about 75 from the final 10 overs Ben Ralphs and Yeshua Bhatti started to counterattack with some aggressive running between the wickets. Bhatti in particular looked impressive for his quickfire 35. Having spent the afternoon regaling his teammates with tales of his cricketing exploits (both real and imagined) James ‘The Big Show’ Milligan had a chance to prove himself with Cookham needing around 50 off the final 6 overs. Cookham kept attacking with a large 6 down the ground from Milligan. With Bhatti falling of the final ball of the 39th over, Cookham found themselves needing 9 from the final over. As captain Richardson strode out to the middle, Milligan assured his captain, that he ‘had this’ and all Richardson needed to worry about was getting back for 2.

This is how the final over went:
39.1 OUT - Milligan clean bowled by Ferneyhough. A semblance of a send off from the Amersham players as they mockingly shouted ‘The Big Show’ at the departing batsman.
39.2 OUT - Pateman clean bowled by Ferneyhough
39.3 ONE RUN - Frazer Finlan knocks the ball to mid on
39.4 OUT - Isaac Richardson is run out attempting a suicidal second run to deep cover. A few less pints and pies of the last 12 months and he might have made it.
39.5 NO RUN - Number 11 Dan Matthews is unable to get ball away.
39.6 TWO RUNS - Matthews chips the ball high in the air, but it lands safely and Cookham get two.

Cookham came up short by 4 runs in a thrilling encounter, as the club were denied that elusive 5-win weekend. This was a credible effort given the strength of the opposition which was littered with players from the upper reaches of the Amersham set up. Next week Cookham return to action with a local derby against Odney.

Amersham Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
11w 1b 4lb 
for 8 wickets
16
214 (40.0 overs)		     
Nick Nguyen ct  M Pateman b Y Bhatti 5 29 1 17.24
Hozefa Hussain b  B Ralphs 37 42 5 88.10
Murtaza Shabbir ct  & b B Ralphs 10 16 2 62.50
Graham Rance st  R Mettler b J Milligan 62 60 8 1 103.33
Toby Ferneyhough b  D Matthews 40 37 6 1 108.11
Zain Memon b  J Milligan 1 5 20.0
Hirantha Harshana Vitharanage Not Out  30 41 3 73.17
Mahir Choksi b  B Ralph 12 8 1 150.0
Acheen Rajapaksa st  R Mettler b Ralphs 0 1 0
Paul Weston Not Out  1 1 100
Jeremy Vaughan  

Cookham Dean Cricket Club Friendly 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Frazer Finlan7.011900.002.71
Yeshua Bhatti6.0036136.006.00
Ben Ralphs7.0046411.506.57
Mark Pateman6.003400.005.67
James Milligan7.0030215.004.29
Daniel Matthews4.0026126.006.50
Lashvein Srisankar3.002200.007.33

Cookham Dean Cricket Club Friendly 1st XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 2w 5b 1lb 
for 9 wickets
9
210		        
Rob Mettler st  N NguyenM Shabbir 69 79 7 2 87.34 2
Jake Richardson ct  T Ferneyhough b M Shabbir 54 53 8 1 101.89
Jonathan Gay ct  A Rajapaksa b A Rajapaksa 1 12 8.33
Yeshua Bhatti b  J Vaughan 35 39 3 89.74
Lashvein Srisankar run out  (Unsure) 1 24 4.17
Ben Ralphs b  H Hussain 18 16 2 112.50 1
James Milligan b  T Ferneyhough 19 13 1 1 146.15
Isaac Richardson run out  (Unsure) 1 1 100
Mark Pateman b  T Ferneyhough 0 1 0 1
Frazer Finlan Not Out  1 1 100
Daniel Matthews Not Out  2 2 100

Amersham Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Hirantha Harshana Vitharanage6.003500.005.83
Toby Ferneyhough6.0128214.004.67
Murtaza Shabbir8.0237218.504.62
Jeremy Vaughan5.0032132.006.40
Acheen Rajapaksa8.0121121.002.63
Hozefa Hussain6.0040140.006.67
Mahir Choksi1.001100.0011.00