Mill Hill U11 v Southgate U11, Sunday 5th July
On a sloping pitch with an incredibly fast outfield, Southgate won the toss and opted to field.
Co-captain Dylan opened the bowling, and the opposition showed their intent with good running taking singles (leg byes) and putting the Southgate fielders under immediate pressure.
Julian took the second over and took a wicket with his first ball clean bowling the opening bat. His second ball also smashed into the stumps setting up a hat-trick opportunity that sadly wasn’t taken. Despite conceding a couple of late boundaries in the over Southgate had reduced Mill Hill to 19-2.
Thevin continued the good work taking a wicket in his first over but the fast outfield allowed Mill Hill to add to their total reaching 29-3 off of 3 overs.
A couple of relatively quiet overs followed until Henry Cox, bowling the 6th over, broke the growing partnership, taking a wicket with his second ball and a second with his fifth ball leaving Mill Hill on 52-5 after 6 overs. The next four overs were wicketless and at the half-way point the batting side had mustered 87 for the loss of 5 wickets.
Switching ends caused the Southgate bowlers some difficulty and boundaries started to accumulate. Henry Cal made a great attempt with a catching chance but it wasn’t until the 15th over that Southgate struck again, Henry Cox coming back to take his third with a good yorker.
Tom joined the party in the 18th over taking two wickets and Henry Cal added to the wicket tally in the 19th over with Aryan taking a good catch.
A good bowling display had seen 9 wickets fall but the run rate had been good throughout allowing Mill Hill to post 171-9 in their 20 overs.
Julian (2-13), Henry Cox (3-8) and Tom (2-7) all bowling two overs were the pick of the Southgate attack.
Facing a stiff target, Southgate negotiated a cautious first over but lost their first wicket in the second, Julian stumped whilst trying to attack and increase the run rate.
Dylan scored Southgate’s first boundary with his third ball and it wasn’t until the end of the 6th over that Southgate lost their next wicket, Thevin lobbing a catch back to the bowler immediately after scoring a lovely boundary. Southgate were 37-2 after 6 and beginning to fall behind the required run rate.
With the two co-captains at the crease, Niam and Dylan set about building a partnership and until retirements broke up the partnership Southgate has mustered 75-2 at the half-way point and the game looked set to be heading to a close finish.
Tom was the unfortunate victim of a direct hit, Aaryan received a good yorker, but the retirement of Dylan slowed Southgate’s run rate with only 11 runs coming from the 13th to 16th overs.
A brotherly run-out saw the end of Arthur and Dylan, chasing a lost cause, was bowled in the final over.
Southgate came up short posting a respectable 121-7, the damage being done in the middle orders where runs dried up and left too big a mountain to climb.
Despite the loss the boys took 8pts off the team top of the league, took 9 wickets and fashioned a reasonable run chase so a lot of positives to take into the final two games of the season.
Report: David Cox