U11s Ease to Comfortable Win at Newick

Burgess Hill u11s 283-1 beat Newick u11s 205-8 by 78 runs

Each time the boys play at this age group, they encounter a new skill to learn, and in this game they adapted excellently to a frustratingly slow damp pitch and won with ease with an excellent all round display.

The hosts won the toss and put us into bat. The overnight rain meant the grass pitch, whilst entirely playable was slow and low, and required the boys to play with discipline and be selective with their attacking intent. The naturally attacking opening pair of Toby Spooner (12 unbeaten) and Billy Fuller (5 unbeaten) began well; Toby hitting a couple of early boundaries and they found gaps and rotated the strike effectively. A quiet period ensued, as the next couple of pairs struggled to find the boundaries with the gripping outfield, however kept their discipline well to mean that at 12 overs we were 243 and no wickets lost. Lewis McIntyre then came in, and put his natural power to huge effect with a four and a towering six over long on, from his first two balls. Glen MacDougall supported well, and Lewis again found the boundary to reach 15 from the bat, before succumbing to the only wicket of the innings with his last ball.
Conor Ward (9 unbeaten) and Henry Cobham (7 unbeaten) closed out the innings well with some smart play and scurrying running to keep the score moving without losing wickets and took the innings to a solid and highly defendable 283.

The Newick reply started well. Toby (0-3) and Ewan (0-9) bowled tightly but they nicked a few runs here and there and moved the score to 213. Billy and Jack MacDonald came on next, and started the dissipation of Newick’s innings. Jack took 2 wickets to end with 2-1 from 2 overs and Billy broke through also, to finish with 1-2 from his two overs. Another excellent partnership followed with Lewis bowling tidily and Louis Harcourt taking 2 wickets to move the host’s score to under 200, and it went even further below that figure after another bowling pair of Hayden Wickwar and Conor Ward who with 2 wickets and light probing lines meant their four over spell went for nett -7.
For the final pair, Glen bowled another 2 tight overs, however they had a batsman with power who found the boundary three times, and although Louis came back for a 3rd over and took a third wicket (3-9) thanks to a brave catch from Lewis, and Hayden bowled the final over well, they found their way above 200 again and finished 205.

An excellent performance. The batting may have had to be unspectacular given the conditions, but they followed the plan well to bowl straight and accurate and test the batters with balls that arrowed into the danger areas and the wickets came, and very little room to score runs. In fact, such was the accuracy, we didn’t bowl a single wide in 20 overs!!!
That finishes our league season, and the lads will be very proud of a 4th Place league finish and an excellent team unit.

Scorecard : http://sussexsaycl.play-cricket.com/website/results/3059122