Under 11's lose in a mature performance against YMCA

Taking a quick look over Bristol League under 11's results this season it was clear YMCA were going to be the team to beat having already pulverised both Lodway and Bristol CC's, their side featuring three county boys and a number of district players . On a glorious early Summer's evening made for cricket there was a slight sense of trepidation for the home players, (probably not as significant as the that surrounding Paul Mildon making his IPad app scoring debut :)) the lads were making their debut on the grass wicket so would have to quickly adapt to the new environment. As Harry and Olly walked to the crease to open the batting the instructions were to take their time and play themselves in: this was a team capable of skittling out the opposition very cheaply. The first thing to note as YMCA began to bowl was how accurate they were, bowling impressive line and length offering little in the way of width to the openers. Both openers had heeded the coaches advice however, and were playing nice and straight, judging each ball on its merits. The pitch seemed a wicket of two ends: nice even bounce from the city ground end but the odd grubber coming from the Clifton Suspension Bridge end: we'll have to get Mr Cunliffe out again on his heavy roller:) Olly and Ali were unable to trouble the scoreboard, both falling to superb deliveries, but Harry and George slowly but surely started piecing an innings together, playing authentic strokes on both sides of the wicket. With most teams once you've worked through the first few bowlers thing start to get easier for the opposition, but not with this team, every bowler looked accomplished and dangerous. This was fantastic experience for the batsman facing a quality attack, Harry and George rising to the challenge both digging in determined not to give their wickets away cheaply . George finally fell for ten courtesy of a fine catch at mid-off. After a couple of quick wickets ( poor Jenson was very unlucky, being judged run out after the ball was firmly struck towards the stumps at the bowlers end, the bowler getting a feather on the ball to cruelly run out the batsman) Dan came to the crease, forging a solid partnership with Harry, the boys finishing up 79-5, Harry carrying his bat with a fine 31 no, looking like he'd just stepped out of the shower as he walked off the pitch, sweat flooding from his brow! The boys knew they were going to have to be at their very best in the field to stand a chance of defending their lead. Charlie opened the bowling for Bedminster, and it became clear this team were as versed in the art of batting as they were in bowling exhibiting a full suite of strokes. YMCA had probably not faced an opening leg spinner before however, and Joe was flighting the ball well benefiting from a nice patch of rough outside the leg stump. He bowled his full four overs going for just nine runs which was pretty impressive given he was bowling at one of the county under 10's opening batsman, and on another day would have had him out twice caught at extra cover. The boys carried on bowling impressively, Brody and Jenson bowling their full four, and Jenson claimed the sole wicket of the innings , the indifferent bounce doing for the YMCA batsman. YMCA bought up the winning runs in the 18th over, in truth not really looking under any pressure as the approached the rather modest target, but in the final analysis this was an accomplished performance from which our boys will have learned a great deal from against a team who are likely to remain undefeated all season.