Terra Nova 144-6 dec. (29 overs) Elliot T 3/20 S.Anselm’s 121-4 (24 overs) Matthew N 35*, Isaac S 31, Ollie R 28
It may not have quite matched the 10 hours of concentration shown by Isner and Mahut at Wimbledon this afternoon, but Matthew N had to focus on every one of the 340 balls bowled in this match! He kept wicket well before batting with determination, the backbone of our innings, in a drawn match where the batsmen from both sides had the upper hand against weaker bowling attacks on a very warm June afternoon. He takes the man of the match award!
Terra Nova opted to bat first and Elliot T was given the new ball. He struck early and S.Anselm’s had some control even though no second wicket came as good batsmen defended good bowling. The football had just kicked off at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium against Slovenia when a key moment in this game passed as Beck survived a (very) confident appeal for caught behind. He was on 14 at the time and although the returning Elliot T took two wickets in two balls, the second to an excellent catch by Andrew C at third man, three fours hit in his first six balls by Neary got Terra Nova back on track. Beck survived a catch at mid on and one more wicket fell but the runs came all too quickly against some moderate bowling, Elliot T and (except his 4th over) Alex W aside. Against a good batting team, our bowlers need to be at 110% and we need a little luck to dismiss a team. We had the luck against Magdalen on Monday – today, edges, aerial balls into gaps favoured Terra Nova. Jonah G was the best of the ‘back up’ bowlers and there were further good moments in the field, but we were awaiting the declaration which was well timed for the home side.
Terra Nova batted three overs after tea – where we watched England’s progress in the World Cup. The opposition umpire praised Elliot T’s bowling. In front of the football, I mentioned the footballing family link but I was put down as I was introduced to Gareth Barry’s daughter in the room who was watching her father play in the match! Back to the cricket ... all eyes on Theodore H – would he become the first U11 to reach double figures in eight successive innings?! He and Matthew N gave us a very solid start against the aggressive Beck. One ball Matthew was ducking under a bouncer, the next he was digging out a yorker. Superb cricket! Theodore H hit his second boundary to reach 10, then was dismissed two balls later! We had 17 overs to score 128 runs at 7.53 runs per over. A super start, but a very difficult challenge awaited us. Isaac S played a remarkably assured innings, however, easily his best for the school. Three excellent boundaries against the returning Beck was high class batting, as were the defensive strokes. I slip this in at my peril (!), but, as Isaac himself said, 25 minutes against the bowling machine yesterday afternoon had lifted his batting to a new level. Oliver R continued the run fest to bring S.Anselm’s to within touching distance of the run chase as the Terra Nova back-up bowlers were not strong either. There were a few ‘what if’s’ at the end of the match ... if Matthew N had scored a little more quickly might we have reached 145? Had he been dismissed, we did have a number of aggressive batsmen to come ... To be fair, we didn’t have long to bat (even at, for the fourth successive innings, a bowling rate of 17.1 overs an hour!) but, with hindsight, we might have been able to push Terra Nova a little closer had, perhaps, Andrew C and Charlie S been able to have a ‘quick swing’.
Overall I was very pleased with our batting performance, a little less so with our bowling. That said, if Terra Nova’s numbers 5 and 6 can come in and score a combined effort of 40 runs in 50 balls they deserve to come away with at least a draw from this match. It was a day for batsmen, the sun was shining and the stumps were small. In all honesty, only Elliot T looked like taking a wicket throughout the afternoon. An honourable draw would aptly some up this afternoon’s encounter. I’d like to have had a couple fewer draws so far this season, but I admire our determination and resolve. We hope for a good 3rd years sports tour – not U11 ‘A’ matches with almost completely different teams (essentially an U11 ‘A’ / ‘B’ mix) in each game – but, weather permitting, we still have four competitive U11 matches remaining ...
Posted on
Wed, June 23, 2010
by MAC