u13 Reports 2009

22nd July - Home against St Georges

The final fixture of the season saw Lilleshall U13’s drawn away to St. Georges, a game that had been eagerly anticipated by all at the club.  So when we got the call to say that the game could not be played at St. Georges due to a waterlogged pitch, following endless down pours all week, we all feared the worst.  However, the absence of an u11s game enabled us to offer switching the match to the artificial pitch at Lilleshall, St Georges gamefully accepted the challenge and the match was back on.

Cloudy skies were the order of the day and the wind was gusting strongly across the pitch making conditions difficult for bowlers, but thankfully the rain held off and the match got underway with St. Georges winning the toss and electing to bat first so James Gant and James Hudson opened the bowling for Lilleshall.

First man in for St Georges was Lilleshall ‘old boy’ Alex Dillon, making a return visit but now playing for his new club.  Things started well for Lilleshall, with the two James’ showing Alex no mercy in a display of good pace bowling requiring some very good batting to defend with only the odd scoring shot.  In all, James Gant continued his excellent performances of late with an impressive three over spell in which he took 1 wicket (clean bowled) for 10 runs, only conceding 2 runs off the bat but with 8 extras.  James Hudson also bowled well conceding 12 runs from his 3 overs with only 5 runs coming off the bat  and 7 extras.  Bowling in tandem, the pair managed to restrict the St. Georges openers to only 8 runs off their 4 overs.

Next to bowl was Cameron Seabury who made a brilliant start by bowling a maiden first over and he rounded off a great performance by taking 2 wickets in his third and final over to finish with bowling figures of 2 wickets for 8 runs of 3 overs with 4 extras.  Cameron’s first dismissal saw James Gant hold on to an excellent catch in the covers, and he bowled the St. Georges batsman for his second wicket  Rory Cattermull bowled well once again but conceded 13 runs off his 2 overs with 4 extras, whilst Thomas Mackriel also bowled well but conceded 10 runs of his 2 overs with only 1 run coming from the bat and 9 extras.

Ryan Ball was next to bowl, and 11 runs came from his 2 overs including 3 extras, whilst Talal Ahmad was a little expensive with his 2 overs producing 17 runs for St. Georges, including 4 extras.  Isaac Pollard made a sensational start to his 2 over spell taking a wicket off his second delivery when James Hudson took a smart catch at mid off and he finished with his 2 overs costing 11 runs in total including 9 extras.  Lilleshall’s final bowler Tom Cox only bowled one over, but it was an impressive performance as he only conceded 2 runs which came from a wide ball.

In the field, Lilleshall’s usual high standard of catching also suffered as James Gant put one down at point after initially seeming to take it cleanly (forcing the umpire to hastily retract his decision) and he later was involved in the confusion over a high one between himself at short extra cover and James Hudson at mid off as they ended up colliding with each other as the catch went to ground.

The coaches took the somewhat unusual step of highlighting the number of extras conceded by our bowlers this week, in order to make the point about the number of runs the team can concede without the opposition having to play a stroke.  In all Lilleshall conceded 48 runs in byes, wides and no balls out of a total of 74 runs, which means St.George’s only scored 26 runs off the bat.  This was almost certainly one of the worst bowling performances from a Lilleshall u13 side this season in terms of extras.  We know that the team were trying incredibly hard to put in a great end of season performance, but sometimes you can try too hard and we believe this is what happened on this occasion. 

At the conclusion of St. George’s innings they had scored 94 runs and lost 5 wickets giving a net score of 74 runs to chase for victory.  It was noticeable that despite scoring a relatively modest total, St. Georges had not given many wickets away so Lilleshall were instructed by the coaches to take a similar approach to their innings as well and not lose wickets as easily as they had in previous matches.

It would seem that the message communicated at the break had been received and understood, because as Lilleshall started their innings with Cameron Seabury and Thomas Mackriel opening the batting, they looked composed and solid.  After the first 4 overs both batsmen remained unbeaten, with both players scoring 6 runs with Cameron scoring an excellent boundary.  The next pair of James Hudson and Rory Cattermull also batted well and remained unbeaten after their 4 overs, with James scoring 6 runs including one boundary, and Rory scoring 4 runs.  All was going to plan, as the scoring ticked along nicely and there were no wickets given away to reduce our overall score.

All that changed however, when the third pairing of Ryan Ball and Isaac Pollard took to the middle as both batsmen were dismissed once during the next 4 overs when Ryan was bowled by a vicious delivery as he made room to play his shot and was beaten for pace as he tried to push the score along.  Isaac was possibly a little unlucky to be adjudged LBW by the opposition umpire to ball that hit him just above the knee roll and looked to be climbing.  However both played their part in an entertaining run chase with Ryan scoring 2 runs and Isaac scoring 4 runs.  Next came the ‘in-form’ James Gant with Tom Cox who looked a little nervous in this his first match this year.  However, Tom need not have worried as James set about the St. Georges bowlers scoring 17 unbeaten runs in total including a six onto the club house roof and an excellent boundary.  Tom defended stoutly against some very accurate bowling scoring 3 valuable runs, but unfortunately he was bowled in the 16th over but he provided an excellent supporting role which allowed James to call for runs with confidence so well done to Tom for a really superb first batting performance under pressure.

The final pairing of Ziyad Azam and Talal Ahmad (the dynamic duo) strode out into the middle to complete the Lilleshall innings, with clear instructions to curb their naturally aggressive games and to remain unbeaten to ensure Lilleshall won the match.  To their credit, they carried out their instructions to the letter with Ziyad scoring 3 runs and Talal scoring 5 runs including a boundary.

At the conclusion of a closely contested cricket match, Lilleshall posted a score of 110 runs for 3 wickets which left a net score of 95 runs, so Lilleshall had won the match by seven wickets thanks to a very impressive and controlled batting display and some great team work.  It was very evident to all the coaches that during the last twelve months we have seen the squad grow in confidence and mature into fine cricketers with lots of potential for the future.  Many of the boys will be moving on to take their places in the U15 squad next year and the coaches all wish them well for next season. 

It has been a real pleasure to be part of this successful side this year and for those who remain as part of the U13 setup next year, the hard work starts again in the winter preparing for the season to come.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.