Catlin’s Colts Cricket Report 29th May 2014

Colts cricket Report Week ending 29th May

The last two weeks of May have resembled the middle of winter, but we have still managed to play 2 games out of 5 and the backlog of fixtures is going to give us a busy June.
The two games that did go ahead were both under 10 games, the first against an inexperienced Letchworth team. On winning the toss Push elected to bowl, this seemed a good move as the first two overs saw only 1 run scored after Joe had taken a wicket. A good couple of overs though saw the first pair finish on 219. The next four overs saw a lot of dot balls due to the good bowling by Ollie S, Olly J Push and and a wicket for Frazer. At the half way stage Letchworth were on 224. The next 4 overs saw Preston dominate and the score went down to 223 after 12 overs with Pushan and Ollie S getting a wicket. The last pair for Letchworth batted well and struck a couple of boundaries to take the score to 242/4.

Prestons reply did not get off to the best of starts with 3 wickets falling in the first 9 balls. A recovery saw the score come to 203/3. The next pair of Jude and Ollie S scored well and took the extras but with a couple of wickets we finished on 220/5 at the half way stage. Third pair of Tom and Frazer did not experience the best day at the office so when Olly J and Joe went into bat we needed 31. After the first over we still needed 28. The next over Joe took control and took 2 boundaries of the first two balls and then accepted 6 extras. Olly J did the same in the next over and 5 were needed from the last over. A wide off the second ball and a single by Joe off ball 3 took it down to 2 from 3. Olly J took a wide off the forth ball and then defended the last two balls to give is a win by 1 run.

Thursday’s game saw the hardball team entertain local rivals Knebworth. On winning the toss Olly elected to bowl, and with Knebworth having a strong batting line up it was important to bowl tightly. Jude was making his debut behind the timbers in the absence of Ollie S. The first pair scored 17 of which 14 were extras, the next pair made a similar score with loss of one wicket for Luke. The third pair saw some entertaining cricket with boundaries but only a couple of extras. There were wickets for Olly C but also 2 run outs by Olly C to keep the score at 243/4. The final pair took the score to 262/6 mainly due to 2 sets of 6 extras. Pushan and Luke took wickets, Luke’s courtesy of a excellent catch by Jack M. Highlights of our innings were 2 catches behind the stumps from Jude.

To chase the score we needed to not lose silly wickets and pick up singles to enable our big hitters to score later on in the innings. Jack and Jude opened up and started well against the straight bowling of the Knebworth seamers, but unfortunately both were dismissed in the last two overs to leave us on 200 after 4 overs. Next up Pushan and Luke struggled against the tight bowling and with a couple of dismissals saw us on 196 at the half way stage. A big effort was needed, Olly C and Joe started it of by scoring 10 / 8 /3 / 13 off the next four overs, with both players hitting two boundaries. This took the score to 230, leaving us 33 for the last pair. A tight first over left us needing 28 but when Adam was bowled off the first ball of the next over it was not going to be. A late rally by Adam when he hit a couple of 4s made sure we finished on 241/6. A good effort but the difference was the extras.