U13 Boys Cricket v TSA

On Thursday 18 May the U13 boys hosted Thompson’s Sports Academy for an outdoor 20-over cricket match. This longer format of the game gave all of the boys involved much more of a chance to practice and improve their cricket skills and it was great to see so many boys involved who aren’t already playing at clubs as well as those who love their cricket.

Isaac ADEBO, Louie DUN (vice), Corey GARLAND, Nana GYIMAH-SARPONG, Benjamin LUMOSO, Jody QUINN, Toby RICE (capt), Ariel RUGMAN, Ollie STRATTON, Jack THOBURN, Joseph WILLIAMS, Maxwell WILLIAMS

Following the toss, St Katherine’s were tasked with setting the total for TSA to chase down and so opening pair captain Rice and vice Dun made their way to the middle to lead from the front. They had a good look for the first few balls as they adjusted their game for the artificial wicket. It didn’t take them long to get going with Toby doing the early share of the run scoring. Louie was supporting him nicely but Toby quickly settled into the great form he has been enjoying this year. Both boys got in and began to score fairly freely and midway through the innings they had accumulated 74 runs and were looking in a very strong position. Toby and Louie had gotten things off to a brilliant start and were both retired shortly after one another bringing Ollie and Jack to the crease. Ollie took no time at all to get going and seemed to be really enjoying his batting. Jack looked solid in defense and let Ollie go about his business. Ollie hit 26 runs before retiring with 20 of them coming from boundary fours! After 15 overs the boys were on 116 and it was down to Ari and Maxwell to close the innings. Maxwell rotated the strike really well and Ari turned a couple of wayward deliveries around the corner brilliantly for consecutive boundaries to move the total on again. After their 20 overs the boys had lost just 2 wickets with four boys retiring to give others some time at the crease, setting a total of 143 to chase.

In similar fashion to their batting, Toby and Louie took the opening two overs and conceded just 2 runs apiece. To their credit the boys then made the call to throw the ball around the team to anyone who wanted to bowl. All too often in schoolboy cricket teams rely on 5 bowlers to take on all of the work with the ball whereas in this game SK used 9 different bowlers with nobody having more than 3 overs.

At the midway point the game could not have been any closer as TSA were 73 towards the total; just one short of where SK were at the same point! There was real pressure on all of the bowlers as the game was so close so it was a great opportunity for boys to practice their skills in the thick of a proper competition. It was Maxwell Williams who made the first breakthrough for SK with a cracking delivery that turned & clipped the top of off stump but Joe and Ben also took wickets with some accurate bowling despite not playing for clubs! The boys were really consistent with the ball; Joe Williams, Ari Rugman, Maxwell Williams and Ben Lumoso all finished with economies of around 7.50 which was exactly what was needed at the time.

The difference between the two teams was minute but decisive nonetheless – with 18 deliveries remaining they needed 22 runs and so it was still very much game on! The boys made the call to bring Toby back on to bowl the 18^th over, leaving Ollie the penultimate over and Toby again with the last. Toby kept things incredibly tight in the 18^th conceding just a single run and picking up a wicket with his second delivery. Ollie joined in conceding only 5 runs and again picking up a wicket with his second delivery. Toby capped off his spell with a superb final over going for just 2 runs off of the very last ball of the game but picking up a further 2 wickets for his trouble. Ollie finished with figures of 1 for 7 off of his 2 overs (economy of 3.50) and Toby with 3 for 5 off of his 3 overs (economy of 1.66). TSA finished just 13 runs shy of the total and it could have so easily been a different outcome.

When games are so close it is often the boys in the field that make a difference and there were some examples of excellent fielding from the SK boys. Nana GS was magnificent behind the stumps and has made unbelievable progress since his first hardball game just 2 weeks ago! Nana took the ball brilliantly when it strayed down the leg side and gave confidence to all of his bowlers. So often at this age group boys are able to bowl with pace which keepers can find difficult to stop. Toby and Ollie were hammering the ball down but Nana stood firm and collected when the batsmen missed. Ben Lumoso showed just how lethal he is in the field when he attacked a ball from deep cover and unleashed a rocket at a single stump which hit only for the batman to have just made his ground. Louie Dun held a great catch to take the wicket of a dangerous looking TSA bat who could very easily have changed the course of the game. Isaac, Corey and Jody could all easily have lost concentration in the field as they played their first 20 over matches but they kept their focus and worked hard to keep the opposition runs to a minimum.

A big thank you to Caolan, Matty, Louis and George from year 10 who all came along to lend a hand, again! Caolan did some umpiring, Louis took some great photographs as well as Matty (who stayed to the bitter end) and George who both took charge of the scorecard – it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t acknowledge their hard work as once again I didn’t do very much at all!

Well done to all of the boys involved – what a great opportunity to get more vital hardball experience! Thank you also to those boys who didn’t moan about taking a backseat to let others improve their cricket skills. This friendly game was a brilliant opportunity for both teams to share out the batting and bowling duties – our thanks to TSA for travelling out to us again.

Mr Cook