U13 Boys Outdoor SCB Cricket

On Monday 22 June the U13 boys were in cricket action again to contest the rearranged first round of the SCB 8-a-side competition. The boys had been drawn in the same group as Gordano and St Bernadette as an exact repeat of the indoor competition. Gordano had progressed indoors but SK were out to change that in the outdoor version of the competition. Their first game was against Gordano and they knew that if they wanted to go through they would have to win it.

SK lost the toss and were put in to bat by Gordano which they weren’t complaining about. They got off to a really strong start with Toby and Ollie opening the batting. Gordano were uncharacteristic in their early bowling and gave away far too many runs in extras which only made batting a little more comfortable for the opening pair. Toby and Ollie both looked in good form and were scoring at a good pace. With only 6 fielders attempting to cover a full size cricket pitch, nobody was quite sure what a competitive score was but when SK were 40 off of their first 4 overs they were more than happy.

Toby and Ollie both tried to push on and in their haste were dismissed which brought Louie and Ari to the crease. The two boys had a job to do to keep up the scoring rate but they both batted brilliantly to keep the rate up at 10 an over. Both boys took the easy runs that were on offer with so many gaps in the field and both boys punished the loose ball when it was on offer. After batting for the second half of the innings this pair had guided their team to 77 from their 10 overs along with a little help from some extras.

If Gordano had not bowled as well as they could have done they certainly made up for it with their batting. The opening pair set about getting after the total as quickly as they could and looked dangerous. A few too many extras helped them as well and it wasn’t until the fourth over that the first wicket came. Ben Lumoso took the first with a double bouncer that outfoxed the batsmen to take out his middle stump.

Wickets also came off of the bowling of Dun and Williams but Gordano didn’t let these setbacks affect them and their batting seemed to keep coming. With just 2 overs left Gordano were all but home and needed just 4 runs for victory. Toby and Ollie still had overs to bowl and it was Toby who made the decision to bring himself on earlier than planned to see if he could put some pressure on Gordano at the end of their innings. When Toby charged in and screamed for an LBW the rest of the boys quickly joined in the appeal. If the appeal was loud then the noise that came when the umpire raised his finger was almost deafening and the pressure was on! Toby’s second delivery was another corker and whistle through to the keeper but the Gordano boys managed to scramble through for a bye to relieve the pressure on the new batsmen – smart cricket. The third and final ball of the over saw a thick outside edge run away for 4 down to third man and this gave Gordano the victory.

Their second game was against St Bernadette and the boys made the decision to give some of the other boys more of a go. Toby opened the batting alongside Ben Lumoso in attempt to balance the levels of experience. Unfortunately Ben didn’t get much of an opportunity to bat as a little cricket nativity saw him run out for 0. Louie came in with Toby to put some quick runs on the board and then Toby made way for Nana. Nana learnt a huge amount from batting with Louie and the two boys rotated the strike really well, both scoring runs. Nana was looking good on four and Louie was about to retire when he got bowled after giving the charge on his last ball.  This gave an opportunity for Ollie to come to the crease to bat with Nana. Ollie is a great striker of the ball and was seeing it so well that he struggled to rotate the strike at all. Ollie retired on 15 to let Harry and Nana bat together for the last over or so. Having made the most of the opportunity to let less experienced boys bat alongside club cricketers the boys had 53 on the board to defend.

SK took exactly the same principle of development opportunity into their bowling and different boys shouldered the responsibility of bowling the bulk of the overs. There was some excellent bowling performances in this second game and some hugely impressive figures. Ben Lumoso had no idea what a wicket maiden was but he did know that he had one after his first over. Amazingly Ben would have had another maiden in his second over had it not been for one stray wide delivery. Louie Dun’s first was also a maiden and with other bowlers also really economical St Bernadette were finding it tricky to score. Stratton and Rice finished the innings with an over each; Ollie going for just 2 runs and Toby 1 run but picking up three wickets in the process. St Bernadette finished on 38 and SK were really pleased to have won their second match.

This was the first of three cricket matches for this age group in the week and so they were hoping to take all of their experience and form into the next two opportunities; friendly matches against Broadoak and Thompson’s Sports Academy.

Well done to all of the boys for their efforts on the afternoon.

Mr Cook