Under 11 Team 2 Match Reports

Match called off due to rain.

Chorleywood 10pts
West Herts 10pts

Chorleywood 113 for 3 wickets 20pts
Dunstable 107-5 (6pts)

Chorleywood won by 6 runs.

Another tight finish with the result in doubt until the last over. Chorleywood won the toss and batted first scoring an acceptable 113 for 3 which was probably about 15 runs light and so it proved as ithe match went to the wire.

This was down to some good bowling from the Dunstable bowlers who managed to put a brake on the Chorleywood batsmen. Chorleywood's openers batted well with both Dylan Amin (26) and Edmund Richards (19) scoring good runs and this was followed up towards the end of the innings by Aaron Miller (10) and Louis Drommard (14).

Dunstable started their innings very well taking advantage of some rather erratic bowling from Chorleywood and after 8 overs were well ahead of the ask at about 7 runs an over.

Rishi being the pick of the Dunstable batsmen scoring an excellent 27 backed up by Alex with 15.

Things looked pretty bleak for Chorleywood but some really tight and accurate bowling from Callum Willis (1), Alex Wheal (3) and Dominic Grant (1) pegged Dunstable back to such an extent that they needed 10 to win off the last over and finished at 107 for 5.

So a win for Chorleywood by 6 runs but a game that was played in a very good team spirit by both sides despite the obvious pressure situation at the end of the game.

Chorleywood 65 for 6 wickets 6pts
Hemel Hemsptead 66 for 7 wickets 20pts

Yet another exciting finish came down to the last ball. Chorleywood won the toss and chose to bat and started off confidently.

However after losing a couple of quick wickets scoring became slow due to some accurate bowling and tenacious fielding from Hemel and only Roan Gower (14) and Alex Wheal (15) really troubled the Hemel bowlers and Chorleywood were restricted to a slightly disappointing 65-6.

Chorleywood turned what should have been a not to difficult target into a real match with a Herculean bowling and fielding performance.

Wickets fell regularly and whilst runs were being scored (Hartnell with 18 batted very sensibly) the match shifted to and fro and remained in the balance till the end. 4 runs were required from the last over and these were scrambled somehow in byes with some frantic running and a no-ball.

Bowling honours for Chorleywood went to all the bowlers - Dominic Grant (3 wickets); Alex Wheal (1); Dylan Amin (1); Nick Aldersley; Callum Willis and some fabulous fast bowling from Josh Hodson who bowled at the end of the innings and had figures of 4 overs 1 wicket for 6 runs.

Berkhamsted concede game to Chorleywood.

Berkhamsted 0pts
Chorleywood 20pts

Chorleywood 120 for 7 wickets 20pts
Harpenden 1 90 for 6 wickets 7pts

Chorleywood win by 30 runs.

Chorleywood played extremely well in all areas of their game. Having won the toss Aaron chose to bat and the openers put on 38 before Dylan Amin was run out for 10.

Aaron looked out of sorts and having retired against Redbourn last week for the third time in the season couldn’t do the same again and was bowled for 5. Alex Wheal came in – steadied the ship - and scored a very good 24 before being run out.

Roan Gower continued his stalwart innings as opener as we have come to expect and batted through to the 17th over before being caught for 16. Wickets came and went at the end of the innings – only Josh Hodson really troubling the score with a powerful 8 not out - in quick succession whilst trying to force the run rate but the running between the wickets was excellent and many byes were accumulated. Chorleywood finished on 120 for 7

Harpenden never really could get going against a first rate bowling attack and some excellent fielding and were pinned back from the start only managing to reach 29 by the 10th over and by then the match was effectively over.

Some big hitting at the death took Harpenden’s score to a respectable 90 for 6 but the damage was done by the controlled, accurate bowling throughout. All the bowlers performed well – notably Dylan Amin (1), Dominc Grant (1), Alex Wheal (2) and Callum Willis (1).

Credit must also go, I feel, to Aaron who clearly disappointed with his knock captained maturely and cleverly with excellent field positioning and held himself back from bowling (notwithstanding his clear desire to make amends for the batting) allowing others who were bowling well to take the match home.

A good game again played in a very good spirit. We still have a chance of making the quarters but a lot will depend on boys availability and the weather.

Chorleywood: 96 for 5 wickets 5pts
Redbourn 100 for 3 20pts

This was a game marked out by three very strong individual batting performances, one side bowling exceptionally tightly, and a nicely competitive spirit throughout.

Chorleywood won the toss and elected to bat. Amin and Miller both looked very self assured at the crease, and both bastsmen retired, on 32 and 33 respectively.

No other Chorleywood batsmen got in to double figures and this was down to tight Redbourn bowling: the eight bolwers they used conceded just one wide between them! Of those eight bowlers, Marino and Dinwoodie were the pick of the bunch, taking two wickets a piece.

Redbourn were set a total of 97 to win and were scoring five an over from early on. Evely, the Redbourn captain, carried his bat for all 20 overs, and timed perfectly his 31 - scoring the winning runs with a four- and 2.4 overs to spare.

Suter and Clark also got into double figures, scoring 16 and 10 respectively. Unfortunately the Chorleywood bowling was not quite as tight as Redbourn and they conceded 9 wides (18 runs).

The Redbourn fielding award went to Harry Mahon who chased down several balls from the covers, and threw in well.

Unfortunately we lost a game which we should have won and I take some responsibility here for trying to keep control of a game, involving as many boys as possible, but it rebounded against us.

We won the toss and bowled first, soon reducing them to 20 odd for 5 wickets down. At this point, in an attempt to make a game of it, we gave all our lads a bowl.

We still should have bowled them out for less than 50, but they had a stocky tail ender who came off for the first time this season, bashing 21 at the death to get them to a very unlikely total of 80.

I am sure that we would have restricted them to 40 ish had we bowled our best bowlers through, but our policy always has been to try and involve as many in the game as possible, while still winning the game.  

Even so a target of 80 should have been easily achievable, given the potential of our batting line-up. However they had a very good bowling attack, with their openers bowling our boys some great balls.

They also had an off-spinner who hit the top of off stump 3 times in 4 balls and with a needless run-out off the other ball, we lost 4 wickets in 4 balls. At the other end they had a boy bowling googlies as his stock ball…..unbelievable!

Our boys have now faced quality chimamen and googlies in successive matches…you certainly never see this kind of bowling in adult cricket. It proves that at this level boys have no problem with seam bowling but are bamboozled by quality spin bowling.

We ended up with a disappointing total of 44 or so, only Callum and Dominic showing any sort of resistance. Some urgent coaching in defending your stumps is required with no less than 6 of our boys clean bowled.

From now on our policy will be to win the game in the shortest possible time hopefully batting first (and better than yesterday) I am sure that yesterday was a bit of an aberration, but cricket can be like that sometimes

Match called off due to rain.

West Herts 10pts
Chorleywood 10pts

Chorleywood lose.

Last night’s game was an amazingly competitive affair, played in the best spirit with the narrowest possible defeat off the final delivery!
 
Aaron won the toss again and we decide to continue our successful bat-first policy, but also decided to mix up the order a bit to have a look at some of the boys who have not contributed with the bat so far this season.

Rohan Dua and Dylan Amin opened and immediately struggled to score off some very brisk, straight home pace bowling with very little scoring opportunity given. We also played on a bouncy artificial pitch which I know gave their players a bit of an advantage as the ball tends to bounce a bit more.
 
Rohan tried hard but was bowled in the 3 rd over bringing Aaron to the crease to partner Dylan. Even these two good ball strikers had problems getting the bowling away and even if they did the lengthy outfield prevented any boundaries being scored ( only 2 fours were hit all night!).

Dylan was run out just as he was starting to time the ball and the run out was a result of the pressure exerted by the home side. They then introduced a boy bowling big spinning ‘Chinamen’, something you don’t often see in any form of cricket.

Our batsmen were a bit bamboozled as he bowled 4 excellent over and took Aaron’s wicket, bowled by a beauty. Dom Grant and Edmund Richards batted very sensibly and we crept towards a competitive total. I thought 60-65 would give us a chance, but we lost quick wickets going for the runs at the death and only a good bit of slogging at the end by Nick Aldersley got us up to 57-8, probably 10 short of a good total.
 
We needed everyone to bowl well and that is exactly what we did. Dylan and Nick were very hostile and accurate to begin with and Callum produced an excellent run out for the opening wicket. Dom came on and took a wicket aswell as giving nothing to hit. Callum bowled straight and at halfway the home side were 28-2.

Further good spells form Aaron with his off-spin and Ollie Higgs who both took a wicket kept us in the game, but the Hemel skipper played a very patient innings and inched his team to within sight of victory. They need 3 runs to win off Dom’s final over and a fluky sliced drive off the 2nd ball brought the scores level. Dom then bowled 3 tremendous dot balls, only for the last ball to be slapped for the winning runs!
 
Thanks to all the parents for their help and support…we all went home mentally exhausted. The boys were a bit upset to lose but I’m sure that they will have learnt a lot about how to play under a great deal of pressure and almost defended what was a slightly low total.

Chorleywood win by 11 runs.

On a damp, murky night Chorleywood won the toss and elected to bat first in a match reduced to 16 overs each.

We lost Roan Gower to the second ball of the match which was a wicked inswinging Yorker from the opposition skipper. Edmund Richards came in to join Dylan Amin, who started to show his power before being caught behind to another excellent delivery.

This brought in in-form skipper, Aaron Miller, who carried on where he left off the previous Monday. With controlled ball-striking he raced to 30 not out off just 14 deliveries, ably supported by Edmund. By the halfway stage we had 50 runs on the board.

With Aaron having to retire for the second match running, Michael Swain got his chance to show us what he can do and after a shaky start he and Edmund began to push the score along towards a very good total. Edmund was bowled with a couple of overs to go for a well made 19. Dominic Grant bashed a quick 7 and Michael finished on 10 not out to help us to a total of 90.

In reply, Dunstable got off to a flyer as they all came in and swung the bat. A good opening spell from Dominic kept us in the game and he took a sharp return catch to give us our first wicket.

The batsmen took a few risks and we ran out the next two batsmen with some sharp fielding. Rohan Dua took an important wicket with his second ball having the Dunstable skipper caught just as he was looking capable of winning the match, so well done Rohan.

Ollie Higgs also struck in his first over to remove the only other capable batter and the game finished with Callum and Dominic bowling tightly to ensure victory by 11 runs.

Harpenden 62 for 5 wickets 3pts
Chorleywood 88 for 3 wickets 20pts

Chorleywood batted first and scored 88 for 3. Roan Gower going in number 1 and batted through the innings (20 overs) and scored 19, whilst Dylan Amin going in number 2 hit 13.

Aaron Miller followed his excellent knock in the first played match with an even more impressive batting display and scored an undefeated 30 off of 5 overs and then as per the rules was forced to retire much to his chagrin.

Scoring was slow following the dismissal of the top three but Chorleywood made it to 88 for the loss of 3 wickets. Bekhamsted bowled and fielded very tidily.
 
Berkhamsted lost a wicket off the very first ball of their innings to Nick Aldersley and another in the second over bowled by Dylan Amin and never really recovered reaching only 13 off 11 overs.

There was fine fielding from Chorleywood and some excellent bowling from Nick, Dominic Grant, Dylan and Callum Willis. The bowling was spread amongst the lesser known bowlers and Arun Kundi and Daniel Bonning both took wickets.

Bekhamsted finished at 62 for 5 and so a win for Chorleywood by 26 runs.

Chorleywood 81 for 5 wickets 7pts
Harpenden 84 for 6 wickets 20pts

Chorleywood batted first and posted an acceptable total of 81 for the loss of 5 wickets against some very tight bowling from Harpenden.

Aaron scored 27 ably supported by Dylan who scored 9.

Harpenden started well and were well ahead of the target by the 10th over but some fine bowling from Nick, Dom and Callum who reined in their powerful scoring and in the end the game went right down to the wire with the match being won by Harpenden in the final over.

So we are off and running albeit with a defeat but it was oh so tight.

Redbourn concede game to Chorleywood

The first game of the season for Chorleywood was conceded to them by Redbourn who were unable to raise a side

Chorleywood 20pts
Redbourn 0pts