Bulls v Whalley Range

For their first league match against Whalley Range, the Bulls won the toss and chose to bowl on a bright and breezy Friday evening. Didsbury walked out looking lively in the field as Whalley Range took to the crease. Hana and Ben opened the bowling, applying pressure to the opening batsmen and keeping the runs to a minimum. Whalley Range had a retirement in hand and our first much needed breakthrough came from Will with a plum LBW. Ben resumed and in his second spell took a wicket before running out one of their danger men with a fantastic direct hit. Liam secured the next wicket, bowling his school team-mate ...!
The support was strong in the field and the wickets kept on falling with Harry Youell taking two superb wickets, one bowled and another caught brilliantly behind by Harry M. Arlo took another, bowling a trecherous ball to give Harry M a slick stumping – finally a legitimate appeal..!! Jacob and Alfie’s bowling was great, ensuring that the opposition could not take many runs. Will took a nice catch to ease out their 9th man and suddenly the 20 overs were done - Whalley Range limited to 104 with only one wicket remaining. The fielding was tight, led by example from Jack who was diving all over the place saving fours, possibly depriving the oppo of more than thirty runs!!

The Bulls walked out with their heads held high, taking their guard believing this was an achievable target. However, disaster struck on a very tricky wicket and within the second over we were two men down with Wood at number 4, already in. He managed to hold on for two overs before being run out by another direct hit. After Will, in came Alfie who, alongside Liam, looked like they could make a stand against the confident attack, but that too was short-lived when Liam was bowled to be replaced by Ben who was unfortunate on a difficult pitch and hurriedly followed him . Harry Y came in on a hat trick ball and calmed everything down, taking defensive shots and valuing his wicket while applying pressure to the opposition in the field - exactly what we needed. Unfortunately Alfie was bowled shortly after and Hana came in to be caught that ball - would it be another collapse? NO. Jacob and Harry built an amazing partnership which saved the team from an embarrassing 30 all out and raised the score to a good 60 before Harry was unfortunately bowled in the penultimate over. Rahul came in and stood firm, allowing us to bat out the overs.

The game was tough but we managed to bat through it. We all need to learn to value our wicket. If we all learn from the stand taken by Harry and Jacob, we have a good chance of returning to winning ways.
Thanks for all the support and help.