The away game that is oddly closer than the home pitch for the U11 rolled around on Sunday 28 June.
The team appeared relaxed and focussed following the Mill Hill experience and Dylan won the toss and elected to field.
Taking the new ball, he was into his stride quickly and well partnered by Julian who bowled a tidy length and line from the off and was rewarded with a wicket in his first over. Southgate were also markedly improved in the field, backing up well and providing positive encouragement for their team-mates. The bowling remained tight and it was in the 7th over that Dhyaan took the second wicket leaving Adelaide on 42-2.
Some poor decision in the field was beginning to creep in with overthrows adding to the total, the previous good backing up now beginning to slip a little. However, in the 12th over Dylan returned and prised out two wickets in two balls to leave himself on a hat-trick…. Sadly, not completed but it had reduced Adelaide to 74-4 with only eight overs left.
Julian bowled another tight over finishing with impressive figures of 2 overs, 1 wicket for 2 runs and Zari also bowled a good second over to finish on
The last five overs went for 31for the loss of two wickets leaving Adelaide on 116-7 in their allotted 20 overs.
Unlike the previous few games where the batting was knocked through the loss of early wickets Southgate started cautiously scoring 5 in the first two overs without loss. It was in the 4th over that Dylan started to play his shots scoring Southgate’s first boundary.
The sixth over saw what turned out to be a definite swing in fortunes with Adelaide taking two wickets in two balls (another hat-trick chance missed) to reduce Southgate to 26-2 after five overs.
Although behind on the run rate with plenty of wickets in reserve Southgate were still in the game and with 23 runs coming without loss in the next five, Southgate reached the halfway point on 49-2 and still holding wickets for the last ten overs.
A wicket was lost in the 11th and only 2 runs scored and with Dylan having retired the run rate was slowing too. A selfless attempt to get on strike and push the run rate up saw Henry Cox run out and only one bye was taken from the over.
Two further wickets were lost for the addition of 12 runs and with five overs to go, 68 had been scored and a further 49 required.
Dylan retuning added some much-needed scoring acceleration and at the point of being run out had scored 35 off 30 balls.
A spectacular catch saw off Jacob (on any other day it was a four) and Southgate finished 89-9, 28 runs short.
Overthrows in the field and a lack of urgency at the start of the innings were probably the two biggest contributors to the defeat but a much-improved performance from Southgate none-the-less.
Report: David Cox