U11s in last-ball thriller
The Cooks U11s started the season in bright and breezy conditions at Compton Park on Sunday against St Crispin’s Ryelands. Having lost the toss and being asked to bat first, Aidan Garratt and Prasil Chauhan entered the fray.
Both played with intent and found the boundary with excellent shots during their four over partnership, a good sign this early in the season, but a couple of wickets meant that the net score had dropped to 8 runs when they departed.
Next in were the older pair of George ‘Tavare’ Thompson and Anya Neal who batted sensibly and were undefeated having taken the score onto a net 20 runs. Anya hitting a glorious on-drive for 4.
Liam Morrissey was joined by Luke Venkatasamy [on debut] and although nervous he accredited himself well. With additional crease awareness, Luke’s tennis skills will serve him well with the bat in the future.
Last pair of debutant Jacob Reeve and Jake Morrissey needed to score well to set a defendable total and duly did so, lifting the net score to a very modest 31, but on a damp and green pitch it gave us hope at the interval.
After the third St Crispin’s pair had batted, they were 10 runs ahead, but the potential loss of wickets could come to the Cook’s rescue and so it unfolded. George, Jake and Liam all took wickets and Jake scored a run out with a direct hit which left St Crispin’s 9 runs ahead going into the last over.
With 2 wickets and no runs required, Jake struck twice in the first three balls clean bowling both batsmen and the Cooks were now ahead and with one ball to come…which unfortunately was a leg side full toss that the batsmen squeezed away for 4 and a three run victory for the visitors.
Although disappointed with his last delivery, Jake finished with 3-6. There were also solid bowling contributions from George [1-11], Liam [1-15], Aidan [0-13] and Prasil [0-7]. New boys Luke [0-13] and Jacob [0-17] will develop their bowling over the coming weeks but fielded well and with energy and enthusiasm. Jacob also set the example for others to follow with his backing up in the field.
I was really proud of the performance from the new look team today and expect a victory to follow very soon, well done for a great game!
Also thanks to Charlie for preparing a belting track given the wet weather over the preceding weeks and to Sid for scoring with his usual accuracy. See you all next week at Brixworth.