U 16 A Twilight     Round 2   vs Omega

        Perfect conditions again but Tom Hamilton lost the toss and Omega had no hesitation batting. Omega had a very strong opening pair and the team knew what was needed. Joe Longbottom and Nick Brown shared the new ball. Both bowled the right line and backed by excellent fielding and fields restricted the openers to 19 off the first 8 overs. Joe continued where he had left off last week and Nick stepped up this week with pace and accuracy to have 0/4 off his 4 overs. Josh Gates, Chris Scott, James Reid and Michael Tregear then shared the bowling to tea. This was always going to be difficult on the fast Sillitoe ground against 2 batsmen determined to up the pace. Josh was rewarded when a faster ball got the leading edge of the Omega captain and Dom Thorn took an excellent catch at mid-on. Chris and James both showed character to come back after taking some punishment to show they can bowl at this level. Chris’s last over was a maiden. At tea Omega were 1/93 and 200+ was looking the final score with wickets in hand. The other opener had retired on 50 after an excellent display. The team is now realising the standard required. David Harrod and Sam Nowlan bowled in tandem after tea and backed by excellent fielding restricted the opposition to 33 in the next 10 overs and picked up 2 wickets. David finished with 1/22 off 6 and Sam 1/14 off 6. The last 10 overs were shares AJ Thomson and Tom Hamilton each bowled tidy spells and the openers returned to finish .Both picked up well deserved wickets with Joe finishing with 1/19 off 6 and Nick 2/12 off 6. Nick was the pick of the bowlers this week and with Joe form a good attack. The bowling was supported all day by excellent fielding and good placement and the keeping of Tom and Dom was excellent . Dom took a brilliant reflex catch to dismiss the Omega vice captain. Also of note was the out fielding of Chris Walker who has mastered the unusual bounce of the Sillitoe outfield! Omega finished with 6/158. Terrific effort to restrict them to 6/65 in the last 20 overs.  This is a reasonable target but we will need to bat well and make sure we are looking for singles and not trying to win the game with boundaries. Only 11 extras was a disciplined effort.    

        Day 2 and the conditions were the same. Chris Walker and AJ Thomson opened against a very good attack and quickly took the score to 28 before Alex was bowled for 5. Tom Hamilton  joined Chris and were looking solid before Chris was fired out LBW for a well made 33. Josh Gates was promoted up the order and added 22 with Tom before picking out point and going for 6. Michael Tregear was next and at the half way mark the team was 3/75. Tom took his score to 31 before being bowled by a beauty and Chris Scott came to the crease .Michael was caught trying to clear the midwicket fence and we were in trouble at5/99. Dom Thorn joined Chris and added 33. Chris in particular looked extremely comfortable in his first hit in U16 cricket and Dom continued his good form from last season. Chris was brilliantly stumped for 23 and David Harrod was next. Dom was caught trying for consecutive boundaries for 15 and we were 7/144. Unfortunatley we lost our next 3 wickets without adding a run to be all out for 144. James Ried was burnt and run out without facing a ball . Joe Longbottom was LBW and Nick Brown was run out at the bowlers end backing up.David finished 10 not out.

        Disappointing to lose by 12 runs but in the end not much between the teams. A few more singles and the result might have been different. The team will bounce back against traditional rivals next game.