After a quite turbulent week of not being quite sure who we were going to play in the GMCL final, it would end up being Prestwich CC. A quite lovely ground with a fantastic pavilion that sits high above the ground below. The pitch was flat. The boundaries small. Stand-in captain Zac thankfully won the toss, and we had a bat.

I'm not sure I will be able to put into words what happened in our batting innings but I will do my best... We had our little wobble at Elton, being 45-7, and then a more clinical performance against Edgworth chasing 91 only one down, but we were overdue a more complete batting performance from our batting line up. Adam and James would open the batting for us, and under my careful guidance I asked them to make sure they learn the pitch, the ground, the bowlers; understand what works and what isn't before they went on the attack. They, of course, ignored me and crunched 13 off the first over, 11 off the second, and 15 off the third. Ah. Well it was certainly a good start but not quite the careful, measured approach I wanted. One shouldn't complain of course. The pair didn't stop there. Between them, 8 fours and 4 sixes to have them retire (Adam 33* off 13 and James 32* off 16) with strike rates over 200. Destruction. Adam’s six into the neighbouring bowling green was a highlight. Aside from some nervous full tosses by their leg spinner, they actually bowled an okay line and length, certainly nothing reprehensible. Tanmay and Kush would replace the retiring opening pair and would carry on. Whilst perhaps not as violent, the pair would both retire (Tanmay 30* off 29 and Kush 35* off 23) with Kush crunching a big six to retire. Zac, standing in for Aarron as captain, would power three fours to the boundary that left Prestwich's fielders creeping further and further away from him. Zac provided one of the moments of the day, but I'm sure he rather he didn't, as he launched one towards a fielder who stuck a solitary hand up and miraculously caught it. The gasp from the multitude of parents watching on, paired with the look on Zac's face, summed up the pure shock of both everyone watching and the fielder himself that he had actually caught it! Krishav and Nikash would take no time in reminding everyone of the position we were in (a rather savage 167-1 off just 16 overs) and proceeded to, somehow, up the run rate. Apparently going at a touch under 10 and half an over was not good enough! Krishav's 30* off 15 and Nikash's 30* off just 10 balls saw us catapult over 200, and land on a rather ridiculous 230-2 off 20 overs. Nevermind Bazball… welcome to Didsball! In his innings Nikash hit a six that I am sure travelled further upwards than it did horizontally, and crunched a four that almost took my head off. Krishav followed up his great performance at Elton, where he and Milan saved us from a terrible position, with another fantastic batting display. An unbelievable performance from a stellar batting line up. Some scarily-powerful boundary hitting paired with some good running between the wickets, against bowlers that were honestly not bowling badly.

Now, what does one say as a coach to a team that has just scored 230 in order to keep them focused, clinical, and perhaps most importantly magnanimous in almost certain victory? It’s important to me, as I'm sure it is for the boys, that we leave all our games with the opposition knowing we are a respectful, well-mannered, and kind cricket club. Nothing would upset me more if clubs, especially at the junior level, thought we were arrogant, prideful, and nasty. I went with the idea of aiming for excellence, and conducting themselves in the manner that we all expect of them as Didsbury players. We certainly did the latter, but maybe not quite the first… Despite brilliant opening overs from Milan, Nikash, Tanmay, and Isaac we were unable to pick up an early wicket. Bowling accurately and giving no easy runs away, the four certainly bowled extremely well. Isaac should have had two wickets, but two rather straightforward catches were put down, and five overthrows off his bowling won’t have helped his mood either! Just getting a little complacent and a tad lazy in the field, something that I hope doesn’t become a trend, but the period ended with a spark of brilliance as Nikash found a sharp-run out (the poor lad running didn’t slide his bat in!). That seemed to wake the boys up, as Krishav picked up two wickets, one an excellent use of change of pace to deceive the batter who had tried whacking him for six the ball before. Another good run out from James, a direct hit from cover-point to demolish the stumps, followed by a fiery spell by Zac where he picked up 2 wickets in 2 balls with the hat trick ball just centimetres away. The young lad who opened the batting for them, who was still battling away at one end commented to me “Why are they all so fast!?” after being hit for the third time on the thigh pad. A brave lad who kept smiling and batting on despite the thunderbolts that were being sent towards him. Two late wickets for James as Prestwich’s innings came to a halt at 67/8 from their 20. Whilst we didn’t bowl them out, the team bowled extremely well. We only bowled three wides, and those only from one bowler. No no-balls. Some work to do on our fielding, yes. Mostly so poor Isaac doesn’t have to relive that over of dropped catches and overthrows by his fielders. After clapping off the opposition, especially the young opener who remained not out (and went for a reverse sweep off his last ball!), it was time for a quick photo and then back to Didsbury as GMCL champions. This enters us into the Lancs cup, of which we are defending champions, the first round of which will be played tonight at DCC against Farnworth Social Circle CC. I now have the near impossible task of picking the batting order… the amount of consulting I have done on it, you’d think I was picking the England test team! A good problem to have, but one I wish was a lot simpler to solve. Come down and support the team this evening.