Richmond U11As beat Indian Gymkhana in Top of Table Clash

Richmond U11A 118 for 2 beat Indian Gymkhana U11A 102 for 2
Tuesday 13th June 2017
Newman Cricket Ground

With Richmond lying top of the West Middlesex U11 Division One League, and Indian Gym placed second, this was a top of the table "must win" match for both sides. Indian Gym won the toss and chose to field, with Hugo K and Ollie F (6) opening the batting for RCC. As we expected, Indian Gym proved to be a good fielding and bowling side, but after 10 overs, Richmond had reached a solid 54 for 1. With Hugo going on to make a well crafted 28 and Fraser B (21no) and Ani S (18no) also on good batting form, we reached a total of 118 for 2 off 20 overs.

Whilst 118 was a decent score, it was far from unbeatable, as we were playing on the astro-turf pitch, and the outfield was dry and fast. To be sure of prevailing, the U11s knew they needed to bowl and field really well. Arjun G and Sam G opened the bowling and straight away found a tidy line and length. Even so, despite good bowling and excellent fielding, the Indian Gym top order stayed on target during the first half of their innings, reaching 53 for 3 off 10. Along with Sam's bowling of a very handy looking Indian Gym opener, a couple of very good run outs created by Ollie F and Fraser B also saw off some of their stronger batsmen. However, RCC clearly needed to slow the rate of scoring, which they did, starting with a few very good overs from Charlotte S and Chris K, which set the scene for an excellent final eight from Findlay B and Finn C. In those last eight, Indian Gym could only manage 33 runs, which left them well short of the required total at the end of their allotted 20. With Oscar Y in fine form behind the stumps, as he quite literally put his body on the line to stop potential byes, all eleven RCC players made important contributions to an excellent all-round team effort.

Man of the Match: All eleven played well, but Finn C ( 4 overs, 11 runs for 0) and Sam G (4 overs 12 runs for 1) share the MOM accolade for two superb spells of "dot-ball" bowling that really put the squeeze on the Indian Gym batsman.