The Haverford Wanderers Take the Field - July, 23, 2022!

This past weekend saw the highly anticipated fruition of the Haverford Wanderers Cricket Team.  In their inaugural match, captained by Reid Sherman (’04), the team of alumni and current students took on Germantown CC.  Despite losing by hearty margin, the Wanders’ spirits remained high, and all involved cannot wait for the next match.

Fielding first, Haverford opened the bowling with rising sophomore Sidd Phatak and Matthew Abraham (‘97).  After a steady start from Germantown, Phatak made the first breakthrough for the Wanderers when the Germantown batter sent the ball flying to deep midwicket.  Rising Sophomore Deep Patel skirted around the boundary and made an excellent sliding catch to complete the wicket.  Just two balls later Phatak picked up his second wicket, trapping the batter LBW.

Gulesh Shukla (’22) would take the third wicket, finding the edge of the bat and sending the ball straight to Andrew Cornell (’19) at keeper.  Wickets fell steadily through the middle overs, with a 4 wicket haul by Cornell.  Two of Cornell’s wickets were thanks to some lovely glovework by Patel, who was making his debut behind the stumps. 

 Sitting at 7-136 with only lower order batters remaining, the Wanderer’s hoped to make quick work of the remaining batters.  Alas, late order cameos from Germantown, helped along by Haverford Cricket’s longtime nemesis—their own wides—would see the total steadily tick upwards until the Wanderers finally got the best of Germantown, bowling out the side for 211.

 Requiring 212 in 30 overs, the Wanderers sent Patel and Phatak to face the new ball.  The pair saw out the first four overs without issue, preferring a cautious approach while the pair got set.  Phatak, however, would have to leave in the fifth over but not before launching the ball for a six which, most agreed, was hit so hard it should have counted for 12!

 After Phatak’s departure, Patel would struggle to find a consistent partner at the other end of the crease, with the next three batters being dismissed for scores of 0, 2 and 0.   Following these quick wickets, Patel would find support from Neilay Shah and Abraham.  Shah’s 17 off 14 and Abraham’s 19 off 15 helped alleviate the pressure Patel felt at the other end. 

 After the dismissals of Shah and Abraham, rising Junior Ken Lin lent Patel some additional stability with a useful 14 ball stand.  Despite 5 from rising sophomore Samuel Ross (which included his first career boundary) and 6 from Will Lesser (‘15) at the tail, the required run rate would prove too high.  The Wanderers were bowled out for 119, 92 runs short of a winning total. 

 In his first outing opening the batting, Patel showed what his bat has to offer the college side in the fall.  His 33 off 48 was not only the highest score of the Wanderers’ innings, but his highest total with the bat. 

 Despite the loss, the Wanderers were glad to have gotten out and enjoyed some cricket.  The current students were able to keep their cricketing skill sharp in the offseason, while the alumni were glad to have an opportunity to shake off the cobwebs before any potential alumni matches versus the college side in the fall. 

 Stay tuned for another potential appearance of the wanderers towards the end of August!