St. Marys U11A Vs Fettes
On Wednesday we welcomed Fettes for our first match of the summer term. With the front pitch set up, the team was excited to get the first test of hardball cricket underway.
Fettes lost the toss so George opted to bowl first to give St. Marys a nice target to aim for. With pairs cricket both sides started the innings on 200 runs and built from there.
Thomas opened the bowling and got St. Marys off to a strong start with a maiden. Followed by Nellie who bowled 5 dots and one wide to keep the runs to a minimum. Gabriella got the first wicket through a catch from Thomas, the next over saw another wicket with Thomas bowling a pacey ball on the off side where it knicked the bat to send the ball up in the air where debutant wicket keeper Ruairi took the catch confidently. With the format of the game, everyone was able to bowl at least one over which everyone took their moment to produce some superb bowling. In the end Fettes posted a score of 257.
Once the batting pairs were sorted, Alex and George got us going with a very disciplined display of batting, with Alex hitting the boundary one of his 12 balls, St. Marys were projected a healthy total with the running between the wickets and a few wides. Next into bat was Anna and Gabriella where they too played the shots dealt to them with ease and composure, whilst also getting a couple of runs in their partnership to keep our total going in the right direction. Ruairi and Nellie went in next and kept the run rate up, making good contact with the ball but were unfortunate to not find the gaps in the field. Thomas and Wilf went in and both his boundaries and were swinging at full tilt to make contact with the ball, Wilf was unlucky to be bowled following a deflection off his pad to make contact with his stumps. Thomas almost got a second boundary but a classy bit of fielding from Fettes denied this with a well taken catch. The projected run score took a little hit at this point with St. Marys needing a big final 3 overs, Armel and Atholl who have hardball cricket experience from last year took to the crease and produced the batting display of the day. Having a batting pair where one is right-handed and one is left-handed, makes it difficult for the field to re adjust. Armel faced 5 balls and got 2 runs meanwhile Atholl hit an impressive 19 runs off 14 balls to which included four 4’s and a handful of singles to get St. Marys over the line at the end. St. Marys posted a final score of 269 to claim a victory in the first game of the season. We look forward to hosting Mowden next Wednesday where hopefully the weather will be just as nice.
Mr S Rooney MH