Blackburn Cricket Club

Round 4

Heathmont vs Blackburn- Under 12C’s

So finally we got some cricket in! Waking up to see no clouds in the sky was relieving to say the least. It was always going to be interesting to see how the boys were going to play considering  the lack of cricket played in the last month or so.

Heathmont won the toss and decided to send us in. Trent and Tom S opened the batting for us and things did not start well as Tom got out for a duck followed by Ronnie and Josh doing the same. We were 3/19 and we were in great need of a partnership. Thankfully Trent was batting well and although all the runs he hit were fours (7 in total) it shows that if you play straight and keep the balls on the stumps out then you can put the bad balls away and make some runs. Trent was forced to retire on 28 which helped the team towards a competitive total.

The next wicket didn’t fall until the 60^th run was made.  This was due to good batting from Nick, David and of course Trent.  Although Nick and David only got 4 and 5 respectively they stopped the flow of wickets, allowed Trent to put away the bad balls and of course if you stay out there at this age the opposition are going to give you some runs through extras (36 in total).  Luke came and went for 2 and Will helped the momentum at the end of the innings continue with three fours of his own ending up getting out for 13. Unfortunately I probably didn’t  work out my maths well enough and Rohan, Tom F and Ronan  did not get much of a bat...in fact Ronan did not face a ball despite being out there for two over’s.  He may think twice before requesting to bat at 11 again lol.

In the end we ended up at 5/88 off our 22 over’s which was a good effort considering we did not start to well. This innings highlighted the importance of keeping out good balls, waiting for the loose deliveries to put away and partnerships when batting.

So after all that we had to defend our total. Ronan opened the bowling (despite the fact he said he did not want to bowl) and bowled very well ending with 0/6 off his two over’s . Tom F also ended up with 0/6 after 2 over’s. We got a run out early and they were 1/11. After that however we struggled and they batted well to reach 1 /39 and 2/48. We needed some wickets if we were going to get back in the match and had to bowl a lot better and reduce our extras. Just on cue David got a wicket which was followed by a run out with the score now 4/48. Despite the quick success we still had to bowl well as Heathmont were above the run rate. Tom S, Will, Luke, Josh and  Ronnie all bowled well with no rewards (wickets anyway). Ronnie and Tom both in fact bowled a Maiden each, so well done boys.

 With Heathmont’s batsman retiring they brought their top scorer back with two over’s to spare.  To counter this as well as to reward him for his earlier success I gave David the ball and he bowled with good pace and control to leave Heathmont needing  10 runs off the last over. I gave Will the opportunity and he got a wicket thanks to a great catch by Tom S which may have gone for a few runs at least had he not caught it. Heathmont could only manage two runs off the over and we won by 7 runs. 

Although cricket is not all about winning at this age it was great to see the boys enjoy the win and improve on the first 2 matches we have played. We bowled less extras then our first one day match this year and Trent challenged the extras on the top score.  Hopefully we can show some consistency and continue to improve in the next game. One area we need to work on is our fielding. At times we were not ready when the bowler was running in and showed a lack of enthusiasm at times. Remember you will field more then you bowl or bat so the more you work at it the more you will enjoy it and help the team out.

Smithy