St Albans 3s too strong for Hertford 4s

Hertford won the toss and put St Albans in to bat hoping to take advantage of a strong bowling attack and a pitch that looked like it might give a little assistance.

The openers got off to a solid start, giving no chances from the opening seamers Orchard and Dellon Reddy. The off spin of Jonny Underdound had Watkins stumped for 28 with the total 34. This brought Shah to the crease who from outset showed little interest in running between wickets, hitting boundaries from all the bowlers until caught by Nigel Hillary of the bowling of Dave Benham for 56 and the total at 134. Opener Rudlin (43) and Ralfe soon followed, bowled by Benham (3/37). St Albans had a good foundation and were it not for some tidy bowling from Jonny Underdown (10 overs 1/30), Dan Orchard (10 overs 2/44), Finlay Morgan (8 overs 1/34) and a respectable 10 overs 0/24 from Del Reddy would have reached more than 203/8 off their 50 overs.

Hertford found runs hard to come by from the outset with only 12 runs coming from the first 9 overs. When Nick Horton was bowled by Watkins and Tim Camp bowled by the next ball, Hertford’s prospect were not looking good. With the sky now overcast and the bounce getting lower, St Albans were inspired. Disciplined bowling backed up by excellent fielding was all that was required to remove the remaining batsmen for a pitiful total of 47. Not surprisingly, the St Albans bowlers all returned good figures with Button 2/7, skipper Andy Walker 2/11 and most notably Watkins 3/4.