Didsbury U11s vs Brooklands

On a soggy wicket, with a waterlogged field forcing a short boundary, Didsbury looked confident as they stepped up to field first.
This confidence was however short-lived as despite some good tight opening bowling and a maiden from Rehan and some excellent deliveries from George, the visitors openers started to quickly stack up the runs. This wasn’t going to be an easy game and Didsbury needed to be sharp in the field… unfortunately they weren’t sharp enough letting easy balls slip through for boundaries and throws off target, giving more runs to the opposition. Brooklands star batsman, and Cheshire County player, soon retired after an innings including four 4’s and a 6, darn that short boundary!
Suliman and Will up next, both bowling really well. Suliman stayed strong in the field between his overs taking the first wicket with an excellent run out. After taking a couple of wickets on his last appearance, the pressure was on Oisin to deliver – and he did. Bowling really tight couple of overs, giving just 9 runs away, he tempted the batsman into swinging wildly to deliver the ball into Luuk’s hands. Then, just 4 runs later he took his second wicket, delivering the ball straight onto the stumps. Brilliant bowling performance Oisin.
But the runs were still piling up and the fielding, although improving as the overs ticked by, was not as strong as it has been in recent week.
It was time to push for some more wickets. The captain changed the bowling order and brought in Amaan, a good decision as he took 2 quick wickets and put some real pressure on the batsmen. This was followed by a brilliant pick up and throw from square leg by Rehan straight onto the stumps – 7 wickets down.
Luuk stepped up to deliver a very tight 2 overs, conceding just 5 runs whilst there was another promising spell from Ayaan who spun the ball past the edge on numerous occasions. Ismail and Ibrahim both acquitted themselves well, showing real strides in their bowling and putting a squeee on Brooklands run rate. In fact, the team ended the innings as they should have started, tight bowling with great support in the field. Unfortunately another week where 22 extras were given away again – it was going to be a struggle to reach the 110 target.
Rehan and Amaan opening the batting and set the tone with some great running. Rehan bettered the visitors with a flurry of boundaries, hitting two 6’s and two 4’s taking him to retirement on 28. Adam came in and was unlucky to leave the field without scoring after being caught in the slips. George continued his excellent form with another really well paced batting performance taking him to 23, frustratingly 2 short of a second retirement.
The boys were determined to get the runs, and whilst the extra weight of the Zing bails saved a couple of wickets, the inevitable run-outs came Oisin and Suliman both out before they really got going. Luuk looked strong in the crease and was unlucky to be bowled as he had to look for big hits. Will middle the ball as soon as he arrived at the crease but was caught aiming a big hit. Ibrahim and Ismail closed down the overs, both not out and taking Didsbury to a score of 94, 15 short of where we needed to be.
This was a match that was certainly lost in the field, against a strong batting team, Didsbury needed to be switched on from the first ball, and they weren’t. The bowling was strong again and some good individual moments of brilliance with both the bat and in the field… it just needed to be more consistent.
Emma Slater

Coaches Note
Although the team were asleep in the field at the start, I was really impressed by the way the team fought their way back into the game and kept the opposition score down to a very "gettable" total. Well done boys.

Last week we talked about needing to score 6 an over – 120 is likely to be the sort of score we need to set or chase. To get this total everyone needs to contribute and we also need to think about moving the score along in between boundaries. There were plenty of gaps on the offside in this game offering risk free ones and twos, so the boys need to think about using all that pavilion cricket experience to keep the scoreboard moving.