Middlesex U15 Cup Final

After a false start last week we turned up in West London on a lovely evening for cricket ready to try and push for the Middlesex Cup Final. We decided to bowl first, lost the toss and ended up bowling first anyway. So far, so good.

Mingus and Noah opened the bowling and with a beautiful, perfectly delivered bouncer, Mingus forced their opening batsman (captain, wicketkeeper and allround chief force) Chico to sky one. It went straight up and came straight down beautifully into the hands… and then through them and onto the ground. A frustrating start, and Chico went on to score 25 off 17, getting them off to a good start.

But we started clawing back wickets immediately, Noah bowling with good pace and accuracy getting the other opener, and then we started chipping them out. Alfie got a good caught and bowled (and should have had another one caught behind but the umpire appeared to be the only person on the field that didn’t hear the nick), so did Jay to dismiss danger man Chico and then Sacha brought himself on, free from the injuries that have blighted him recently for a terrific spell of fast bowling that yielded 4-15 off his 4 overs.

Alfie (1-23), Jay (1-17) and Rory (1-16) kept it tight at the other end, never allowing any partnerships to establish and chipping out wickets periodically.

We had hoped to limit them to 150, so 125-7 off their twenty overs was a good way to go into the break, and we felt positive we had the batting to get that score. The bowling was generally tight and despite a couple of dropped catches and dodgy decisions, we were well organised and disciplined in the field.

Jay and Linus came out to open and they brought all their spinners on first. It was a good tactic and made scoring difficult. Linus got a good one to be lbw and then Rory came on and joined Jay for the most substantial partnership of the match, putting on 72 before Rory was out. At this point we felt fairly comfortable. Ealing were definitely panicking in the field. They’d brought the seamers out and it hadn’t helped them that much. However, once Rory was out Jay followed soon after and then we had two new batters at the crease.

Sacha set about with the bat just as he had with the ball and probably would have taken us over the line had he not been given out lbw. It was up to Danny, rich in form this season, and George, who is becoming our specialist finisher to take us through. They both played some good strokes, keeping the run rate turning over, but when George was out (a selfless 9 off 9 balls) we decided to bring on first Noah, then Mingus, in the hope that one of their special sixes would bring us close to the target.

It wasn’t to be, both being dismissed for 0 (the first time either of them have been dismissed this season, at least giving them a batting average) and bringing us perilously close. With Max and keeper Ed new to the crease we still needed six runs of the last over.

The Ealing boys thought they had it absolutely in the bag. They thought they’d seen off our batsmen with the fifth wicket. Little did they know that Max had opened only a week or two ago and been retired with 50*. Cool as a cucumber he straight drove two consecutive fours and we’d won with two balls to spare.

A fantastic game of cricket – great entertainment for those watching, and played in the spirit that these boys have exhibited all season. Well led by Sacha, with every single one of them making at least one key contribution this is a real team, not a team built around a couple of individuals. They get on very well and their comradliness and team spirit shines on the pitch. It was probably the key difference between us and Ealing. Let’s see how far we can take this now.