3s lose to Watford Town

The 3s were at home against Watford Town IV who won the toss and decided to have a bowl.

James Thompson (14) and Piers Jenkins (12) opened the batting and the skipper was looking good as he scored a quick 14 before he was bowled. Inthi Mazeez (0) was next man in and he was given out LBW in the 10th over with the score 22-2. Matt Hawkes (8) was next in and he and Piers ticked the scoreboard along before Hawkesy edged one behind to first slip who took a sharp catch. Sanket Shah (46) joined Piers at the crease but Piers would follow shortly after as he was adjudged LBW, 48-4 from 17 overs. Craig Atkinson (31) was the next man in and he and Sanket looked to rebuild the innings. Both looked in good touch as they got the score going and were finding the boundaries to bring up a 50 partnership. The score had gone past 100 when Sanket was the next man to go as he was caught at mid wicket looking to score another boundary to bring up his half century. Mohamed Salahudeen (10) joined Craig at the crease and scored a quick fire 10 before he inexplicably ran down the pitch only for the bowler to loop one over his head and hit the wickets to be bowled with the score on 122-6. Andrew Godfrey (0) and Alam Khan (0) were the next 2 in but didn't trouble the scoring but Craig was still there and scoring, 131-8 off of 32 overs. Harry Arjan (4) was next in and scored a boundary of his first delivery but then went to hit one over the top and was caught and bowled. Karan Gupta (0*) was the last man in and Craig scored a couple more boundaries before being caught as the innings finished on 146 all out with 5 overs of the innings remaining.

Matt Hawkes (0-26) and Alam Khan (2-17) opened the bowling but there were a few too many bad deliveries which meant the reply got off to a decent start. It took until the 5th over before the 1st wicket fell as after a decent LBW shout, Sanket with some quick thinking threw down the stumps to get rid of the opener who was out of his crease. Watford Town were going along at about 3 an over as the bowling tightened up and this saw 2 wickets fall in the same over as first the skipper took a good one handed low catch behind the stumps before Alam bowled the number 4 batsman to leave the score 39-3 off of 12. The next over would see another wicket fall as Karan Gupta (1-23) came onto replace Hawkesy and found the edge of the number 3 batsman with the skipper taking a regulation catch. The father and son combination would then thwart the Village for long periods as both leaved well and only played shots on the bad balls. Andrew Godfrey (0-24), Inthi Mazeez (0-19) and Mohamed Salahudeen (1-13) would try their luck and all could not find their rhythm with extras, especially wides starting to creep into the bowling performance. The score was 107 when the next wicket would fall as Mo got an edge and the skipper took another simple catch. The number 6 batsman would bring up his half century and along with the number 7 batsman would see Watford Town through to victory with 3.5 overs to spare.

A disappointing performance by the Village all round as firstly only 2 batsman really got in and we did not bat our 40 overs which is something that we need to look at going forward. Secondly the bowling performance was not like the previous weeks and mistakes crept into the game the longer it went on. 21 wides and 4 no balls meant that the Village had bowled an extra 4 and a bit overs which proved crucial in this low scoring affair. We must improve next week at Berkhamsted if we are to move up from 5th position.