Didsbury u11s v Whalley Range

As the memory of torrential rain at the Didsbury Festival gave way to a fine Sunday morning, the U11s travelled to Whalley Range, keen to put the lessons learnt from last week’s frustrating defeat into practice… and they did.

With a drying breeze circling the ground, Didsbury won the toss and put the home team into bat, looking to restrict the scoring of this “side of 11 batters”. We didn’t have to wait long for the first wicket, as Jan bowled the 6th ball of the game, encouraging their opening batsman to edge behind – straight into Adam's gloves – a great start for Didsbury.

George followed with some tight bowling restricting the batsman to just 12 run from the first 4 overs. Both Jan and George then shifted to do some excellent boundary fielding, alongside Hazim and Amaan only allowing the home team to take 3 boundaries in their entire innings.

Luuk’s second ball delivered the 2nd wicket – a seaming ball cutting back to hit the stumps – the crowd were starting to sense they were in for a brilliant fielding display from Didsbury. Joe put in 2 solid overs, restricting the batsmen to just 9 runs.

It wasn’t long as more wickets began to fall, Will taking the 3rd on the last ball of his first over and Oisin taking the 4th with his first ball of his second over, after encouraging a wild swing from the batmen to deliver a second catch for Adam with the gloves. But Oisin wasn’t done there as he set-up the champagne moment of the game. The dangerous batman, who was tempted to hit big, didn’t count on George’s athletic dive from the boundary to take a stunning catch – 5 wickets down for 38 runs… 2 wickets and a maiden over for Oisin.

As the crowd swelled in the sunshine, the stunning bowling and fielding performance continued Fin taking the 6th wicket with his opening ball and limiting the batmen to just 1 run from his 2 overs. A tight performance from Hazim, left Amaan and Raheem to close the innings. Amaan delivered the 7th wicket with some sharp bowling and Raheem closed the innings with a total of 64/7 to chase.

Didsbury’s openers walked confidently to the crease, but the runs were slow to come. As Coach Jo reached for his rain jacket and the clouds started to roll in, “extra’s” were quickly becoming the top scorer. But this didn’t last long… Raheem and Amaan settled and the runs started piling up. With 20 on the board, Amaan was bowled and George came in at number 3.

It was unfortunate for George and then Adam to be both be caught by “lollipop” deliveries from the bowler, as Fin then stepped up to partner Raheem. Positive running from the pair saw Fin put 15 runs on the board and suddenly Didsbury were heading for a clear win. With Just 4 runs needed for the victory the 4th wicket fell, seeing Fin leave the field to a well-deserved round of applause from the whole crowd. Joe stepped up to knock a cheeky single, leaving Raheem to face the next ball – which he switch hit for 4 to take his own total to 28 and seal the victory for Didsbury.

A brilliant performance from all the Didsbury boys – with a stunning bowling and fielding display, which left them a straightforward task deliver the runs for the victory.

Emma Slater

Note from the Coach
It's a great feeling to be confident that wherever the ball was hit, each and every Didsbury fielder would field securely, limit the runs and pressure the batsman. All the boys set a standard today that shows how good a side they are in the field.
The squad has a strong pace attack, but today showed we have a well balanced bowling unit. The medium pacers hit line and length repeatedly and gave the ball the chance to move. We are also now seeing emergence of a couple of promising spinners.
Finally, the batsman learnt that keeping clam at the crease is the best way of chasing down a target.
A very strong performance against a good side - well done.