Match Report: U15s vs Wollaton (x2)

A quick note on our two games so far played against Wollaton one on Sunday 30th May and the other being on 1st June. First of all, credit to both teams for how they played, respected each other to produce two very enjoyable games. Well done to everybody involved.

Now that I have mastered the joys(!) of the technology the scorecards for both games are posted on Pitchero/ Play Cricket for you to peruse. In summary, the Sunday game saw Wollaton being victorious. Ellerslie lost (by 13 runs), in trying to chase down the 110 target that was set. We had the batting ability, with notable knocks from Saahat, Devesh and Swayam – it was getting the run rate up earlier in the session that was the challenge. Good bowling and strong fielding from Wollaton made our job difficult. Something that we should learn from.

On the bowling side we were very tight, efficient and economical – only 3 extras compared to Wollaton’s 12- excellent stuff and good spread of 5 wickets between the 4 bowlers with Matthew getting 2 and Naveen, Swayam and Zayan sharing out the rest between them. Well done to Benjamin who I thought had a great game and a wonderful attitude.

Special mention to Ujesh as wicket keeper who for me on the day had a stand-out performance – both in ability and attitude- he was absolutely committed to making sure byes were minimised- well done Ujesh.

One area for team improvement is in the fielding department which needed a little bit of attention ahead of Round 2! The results of those efforts were duly rewarded, almost immediately in fact when we played Wollaton on the Tuesday.

Ellerslie won the toss and elected to bowl. This turned out to be the right decision with results then coming quickly. It was a real team effort in the bowling and fielding department. Not only were we excellent in the bowling department (Will 3-13; Matthew 2-2; Devesh 2-6; Ethan 1-3; Aman 1-2) we were much more effective in the fielding. We chased down balls with a passion, lots of backing up stopped several knocks that were heading for the boundary. Great catches from Zeeshan and Aman and one run out from Matthew. Wollaton were bowled out after 17.2 overs. A really good all-round effort.

On the batting side again good consistent batting from the players with Jimmy playing some lovely strokes to get us over the line with a very credible 26 runs- timing it perfectly to retire not out and score the winning runs at the same time (after 15.4 overs)!

So, honours even at this stage. I say that as we have another game scheduled with Wollaton at the end of this month.
Watch this space!