U11A cricket vs Belhaven Hill

On Wednesday we travelled to Dunbar for a crunch match against Belhaven. In U11 cricket they are a well drilled outfit and have some of the sharpest bowling on the circuit so the team had to bring their A game. This match was also going to be our first of the season where if you are out, you are out.

George won the toss and elected to bowl first. Thomas M-B and George got us off to a strong bowling start where Belhaven’s opening batters were able to get 3 runs off the first 2 overs. Gabriella bowled with great length and pinned it on the toes of the batsman more than once. Wilf then came in for the 4th over and bowled a great wicket on his second ball to remove Belhaven’s number 2 batsman. The next wicket came 11 overs later where George bowled a peach to remove Belhaven’s opening batter who was on 47 runs. This was a big turning point. Following this, wickets from Poppy, Wilf again and Armel got St. Marys three ducks and Belhaven finished the 20 over innings with 123 runs.

After a quick match tea, the batting order was sorted, Thomas M-C and Alex got the team off to a great start. Thomas M-C played smart cricket and kept his wicket well, defending the good balls and hitting the bad ones. Alex produced a stunning 21 off 20 with three 4’s to get St. Marys in the position where 1 run a ball was needed to take the game to the wire. Anna came in and batted very well with 6 singles before getting bowled by a quick bowl. Thomas M-B got off the mark with a single and then was bowled by an absolute Jaffer that nicked the bail on its way past. Wilf got an impressive 14 runs with a 4 and four 2’s but was out through an LBW from a pacey bowler. George kept his wicket well and watched it carefully getting 8 runs off 27. Ruary came in and the message was to swing as time was running out. After a good shot was played by Ruary, an even better big of fielding was shown by Belhaven and Ruary was run out. Atholl and both helped the cause and got some well taken singles, deflecting the ball just wide of the wicket keeper to get a few key singles. Gabriella and Poppy came in at the end to add onto the singles and kept their wickets until the last ball.

In the end Belhaven came out victors by 15 runs, in a well fought contest. In our first game of proper cricket, the children all have something to be proud of coming away from Dunbar and we look forward to next week’s matches against St. Georges and Merchiston.

Mr S Rooney MH