Didsbury U11s v Hale Barnes

The U11’s arrived full of confidence for their opening match of the season versus Hale Barnes, with the sun trying to shine on a team who were ready to get stuck in.

Hale Barns batted first, facing an excellent bowling display from Didsbury, which pinned the visitors back to just sneaking singles and the odd pair. Amaan opened up the bowling in fine style, limiting Hale Barnes to just the single run across his two overs, and taking a brilliant first wicket for the home team. Fantastic bowling displays followed with Aiden, Jan and Raheem all bowling maiden overs. George and Luuk both delivered tight overs, giving just 6 runs away between them.

Seb put on a brilliant performance with a wicket from his first ball of the season. He followed this up with 2 wickets from the first 2 balls of his 2nd over with a brilliant catch from Raheem and then a caught and bowled.

As the sun shone - finally – Oliver stepped up to bowl taking wicket number 6 with and a boundary throw from Amaan which gave Adam the chance to get the bails flashing with a nifty run-out.

With an improving display from Milan and a solid 2 overs from Joe, the whole team have clearly benefitted from winter nets training.

Out in the field, whilst not always a sharp as the bowling, there was still an impressive and energetic display. Adam was solid behind the stumps, directing the team with confidence, encouragement and enthusiasm. The deep fielding from Jan, Luuk and George, pinned the visitors back to just 1 boundary for the whole match. Improvement in backing-up was clear, with Aiden and Joe doing a particularly good job in this area.

As the local ducks wandered onto the field and the overs were running out it was clear Didsbury were going to have a modest total to chase, with the good all round fielding performance delivering a resulting run rate that barely crept above 2 an over.

As Didsbury came out to bat they had to make 41 runs for the win. The boys were padded up down the batting order and eager to try out new bats and boots, in a real match, but Raheem and Amaan managed to put in an opening performance which delivered all the runs required for the win off just shy of 7 overs. Raheem showed some positive batting, giving the opposition deep fielders some work to do and opening up his account for the season with a strong 20 runs.

As the match came to an early close, and the sun of course set in for the day, Didsbury were magnanimous in their victory, and left the field pleased with their opening season performance. Whilst the win was welcome, the team spirit that existed between the boys was more notable. Well done boys, some great cricket and some clear areas to build on in training for all players.

Emma Slater