RCC U11B lose out to NPL in top of table clash

Despite the damp overcast conditions, the Richmond team were in good spirits and all turned up early enough to manage a few laps of the oval as a warm up! Thanks must also go to David (George's dad) for stepping in with the scoring and also providing the commentary and humour as we watched the match.

Thomas T led the team as captain winning the toss and electing to bat. We thought that this was a good choice restricting NPL to 103 for 2 with some tight fielding and a reduced number of overthrows versus prior games. This was particulary evident with Grayson, Andrew and George working well as 3 behind the batsman. It was also encouraging to see that each boys second over was an improvement on the 1st as they got used to the conditions. The pick of the bowlers were Thomas T and William W who started and finished the bowling keeping the opposition batsmen in check, and there was a real injection of pace from Masshhood in the middle section.

Richmond went in to bat believing that this target was eminently achievable, but the damp and cold air obviously had a greater impact than we thought! We lost 2 wickets in the first over with both Charlie and Mashhood going for shots when playing defensively may have been a better option. Our guest players William W. and William S. (from the U10 and 9's respectively) steadied the ship and regained control putting on 19 runs between them - both were the top scorers of the innings. For the remainder of the innings, wickets fell at regular intervals . Whilst NPL fielded well, we were guilty of watching shots rather than taking singles and not defending our wickets (3 players fell for ducks) reflected in the score of 89 all out in the 18th over.

Our man of the match award goes to William W for keeping the final bowling overs tight and also for building a solid innings and top scoring with the bat. Other notable mentions are to Thomas T who captained vociferously from the field and led the bowling with a maiden over and a wicket, and William S who was our second highest scorer.