Roller Coaster Continues

The season continues on its roller coaster journey with yet another game going down the penultimate ball, that is five out of five played so far this season!

Thomas U and Josh opened the bowling. Josh (as a number of the boys found) struggled with the approach to the wicket at one end as it had a sharp rise and as a consequence he unusually struggled to find his line and length and gave away a few extras. Thomas enjoyed the other end and bowled with great accuracy bowling two boys out in his first over, this coupled with a great leg side catch from Thomas Lowe (keeping wicket) resulted in figures of 2 overs 3 wickets for 6 runs. This meant the score had moved onto 209-3

Arthur and Finn came next. Finn bowled again with some real pace and it was also good to see his accuracy returning after a bit of a struggle earlier in the season. They came up against a pair who started slowly but then had some lusty hitting at the end of the partnership including a couple of fours. Arthur bowled his best spell of the season and bowled with excellent accuracy only conceding one run off the bat. At the end of the partnership the score was on 228-3

Miles and Luke took up the attack. Both opened up really well with Miles conceding just one run off his first over and Luke was also unlucky to have a catch dropped. We gave a few extras away in the next two overs but also bowled some great deliveries including a couple of yorkers from Luke which could easily have got a wicket. This resulted in the opposition being restricted to 243-3.

Tom and Dan were next. The game really began to open up as they had clearly kept their most attacking batsman to the end. Dan has got his confidence back and it really showed as he bowled with increasing accuracy picking up two cracking wickets bowled. Tom also got his radar switched on and got a wicket bowled, one caught of a sharp catch by Luke and a neat stumping from Thomas. There were also a couple of lusty blows thrown in and a smattering of extras. Dan 2 overs 2 wickets for 16 runs, Tom 2 overs 3 wickets 5 runs.

As Thomas L kept wicket throughout Zack closed the innings out with Thomas U and Luke bowling an extra over. Potten End had kept their best batters to the end but Thomas picked up a wicket in his over, Zack like Josh struggled with the hill and was a little wayward but also their best batsman played some sublime shots in the last three overs pulling and straight driving which put the boys under real pressure. However crucially Zack combined with Thomas for another neat stumping in the last over. There was not a lot wrong with the bowling it was just excellent batting! Potten End finished on 277-10

At the break we discussed that the boundary was small, we had chased scores like this before and if we avoided our usual Achilles heel of run out’s we could chase the score down.

Thomas U and Josh opened and faced some steady accurate bowling. Thomas scooped one to Square leg and was caught in the first over but they steadily rebuilt and through some handy extra’s good running and a crashing square drive for four from Josh we had rebuilt to 209 – 1.

Finn and Arthur came next. Once we got our obligatory run out in the first over out of the way the boys crafted an excellent partnership. Arthur was frustrated as he had limited balls to hit due to some wayward bowling. Finn cut loose with two excellent boundaries, another square drive and a great pull shot straight into the crowd watching in the pavilion. The pair had rattled us along to 235-2

Miles and Thomas L came next and were up against some of their best bowling. Miles rotated the strike brilliantly with well crafted shots and good calling. Thomas was all aggression smashing two of his three first balls for four back over the bowler. He then added a couple more pulls for four and nearly a six of his last ball. We lost a wicket of a good catch in the first over as well but also picked up some extra’s along the way. This resulted in us pushing on to 259-3

Zack and Luke came next and as ever it was all out attack from the start. Zack first crashed one over mid on for four and not to be outdone Luke smashed two more fours through square leg. The bowling remained pretty accurate but that did not stop both boys adding another boundary each, and crucially we lost no wickets. After all of that we had got our noses in front at 285-3 with a pair still to go.

The Tring contingent in the pavilion were sitting more easily now and some parents were even seen heading to the bar for a top up!

Tom and Dan often take up the mantle of batting last and have made a brilliant job of it. The role can differ greatly from requiring all out attack to digging in and batting it out. With the instructions that we needed a Boycott style dig in and play straight mentality and at no cost do we give a wicket away we were confident they would see it out. Dan had clearly listened intently to the coaches wise words as he got in behind the first three patting them back to the bowler and then tickled a single round the corner which brought Tom on strike. He wound up with an almighty swing to his first ball and dispatched the ball to deep mid-wicket for four, brimming with confidence he did exactly the same to the next ball and watched his middle stump get knocked out of the ground! As ever with Tring we never like to do things the easy way.

The buoyant crowd had suddenly become a little more quiet. Two overs of cat and mouse ensued with the boys adding five runs for no wickets. This meant as we went into the last over we were 12 runs clear. Tom tickled one round the corner for a single, Dan then got behind the next two balls and played them back, the crowd relaxed as surely we could not lose three wickets of the last three balls, Dan gloved one down the leg side and their keeper took an excellent catch which meant Tom was back on strike, what would he do??? He watched one go down the leg side for a wide and clipped a single of the last ball, never in doubt!!!!

Yet again another fabulous game played in a great spirit by both teams and also great that we got a well-deserved win this time.

This was our best bowling performance of the season and without doubt our best running between the wickets with hardly any silly wickets. Frankly, there could have been any number of men of the match as so moany boys had their best game of the season. Well done to Miles for captaining so well.