Blackburn Cricket Club

U16 B Match Report round 1 October 9, 2010

Heatherdale Vs Blackburn at Heatherdale Reserve

Weather fine but the surface was fairly damp from heavy dew.

Julian Andrews-Church was named as captain of the team for the season and accepted the job. He lost his first toss and we were asked to field against a team that boasted some pretty experienced and talented players. Our plan was to bowl full and (just) wide of off stump to try and curb the scoring early and put pressure on the batsmen. Heatherdale started slowly but once established they took full advantage of any loose deliveries. The wet ball and the talent of the openers was a bit too much for us and they lost their first wicket for 105 off 14 overs. Everyone got to bowl during the innings and all toiled manfully in the face of good opposition. Cristian DiAngelo answered our call for help when we were three short of a full team. He took two really good catches and assisted in two run outs. All the boys tried hard in the field and saved many runs with only one difficult chance going down. Some statistics we need to remember – Heatherdale hit 15 4’s and 10 3’s. That is 90 runs off 25 deliveries. They scored just 73 off the remaining 125 balls. At the end we were chasing 164 for victory.

Our batting faced a similar challenge to our bowling. A big target and experienced opponents in much improved conditions to bowl. Churchie opened with Cris DiAngelo and we got off to a bad start when Cris was run out after some confused calling and nerves. It got tougher after that and we struggled to put any really promising partnerships together. The good news was that we achieved our team goal of not being all out, finishing at 7/47 off 25 overs. Our skipper (Churchie) was unbeaten on 26 and showed great determination for the entire innings.

While losing is disappointing for the team we did learn some valuable lessons from a team that will probably be at the top most of the year. When we did bowl in the right areas we slowed the scoring and our fielding was good. Jet Singh did a great job keeping the chat up all day and the attitude from all players was good. Our batting, while generally ineffective in the scoring area, was competitive. No one went out to wild swings at the ball and all put some value on their wickets.

We get two of our team members back this week (hopefully) and should be more complete with additional batting and bowling options in the team. We have a great opportunity this week to turn things around and if we train properly and concentrate hard the results will come.

Finally, a huge pat on the back for Julian Andrews-Church. He did a great job as captain, both in the field with his field placements and showed real leadership with the bat in a tough situation. Every team needs a leader who commands respect and Julian certainly earned the respect of all of us last Saturday.