Saturday 18th May– North Midd U11B vs Primrose Hill U11A – Regents Park.

The North Midd U11Bs met on an overcast Saturday morning at regents park ready to take on Primrose Hill. For once it wasn't blowing a gale!

Monty took the toss and the opposition elected to put us in to bat.

Marco and Uday opened up for the Midd and the collapse began! Uday, Arun and Akash all fell for 0 playing false shots to straight bowls leaving Alfie with Marco to start the rearguard action. Alfie stuck around and although wasn't able to score quickly at least managed to stable the ship. When Alfie fell we were 28 for 4. Luca fell quickly which brought Owen and Jack next up who did a great job of sneaking a few run whilst Marco let loose from the other end. Monty and Elliot both had cameo appearances at the end of the innings.

Marco fell for 23. Rode his luck a little, but probably saved the inning and gave us something to bowl at. Well done Marco a mature innings.

All in all a pretty good fightback after a dire start.

Tasked with keeping a tight line The Midd took the field rightly buoyant after giving themselves a chance. Akash and Marco started the innings bowling well and importantly not giving away many in extras.

Monty and Elliot were the next up, again bowling tight and finally we made the first breakthrough in the forth over. A beautiful straight bowl clattering into middle stump. Jack bowled well going for 3 followed by Arun who bowled with good speed and took our second victim with a bowl which looked like it was heading down the leg side but took the seam and smashed into the leg stump. Primrose Hill had reached 36 for 2 off 8 overs and the game was poised.
Owen, and Alfie both bowled well. Alfie took the next wicket again bowled and followed that up with a fantastic catch at square leg to remove Primrose Hill's free scoring batsman.

Unfortunately for the Midd our catching let us down a little. 3 chances, all of which we got to with both hands, were put down. And here is the take home message.... we must cling on to these chances. In games where the teams are closely matched it's these moments which decide games.

Well done to both Uday and Monty both of which did a good job as wicket keeper. The fielding in general was of good quality and after "banging the drum" for the last three weeks about walking in and being in a ready position it was great to see the majority of the boys really involved. The atmosphere was good out there and there was no shortage of encouragement when we did things right.

To work on for the next match:
Playing balls on their merit and protecting your wicket.
Catching.

In summary a really enjoyable Saturday morning game played in good spirit by both teams, the sun even came out in the second innings. Well done all!

Graham