u13s Sloggers emphatic win away to Hertford

The sun shone at Hertford and tiny boundaries were always going to promise a fast scoring game. Having won the toss and decided to bowl, skipper Toby rotated his bowlers blending spin and pace. For 6 overs this seemed to be containing the score, but Hertford still reached 60 off 10 thanks to a couple of loose overs. This was aided by some uncharacteristically sloppy fielding (drills at training this week me thinks!) with multiple runout opportunities missed! Wickets mostly went to the spin twins Sam(2) and Conran(1) with Alex chipping in with the other wicket. With short boundaries, economical bowling was as important, if not more important than taking wickets. With that in mind, a shout out to Byron, Sam, and Ed whose 8 overs cost just 19 runs! 108 was Hertford's final innings total which, despite a pitch taking extravagant seam and some variable bounce, felt under par.

The run chase could barely have gone better thanks to a dominant and positive opening stand exceeding 70 between Will T (30*) and Eddie F(32*). They looked to score off every ball, hit some great boundaries but most importantly kept the dot balls down to an absolute minimum despite some tight bowling from Hertford. Both retired not out to generous applause from the watching parents and players. The game was all but over by the time Toby (11*) and Alex (6) put on a rapid partnership leaving Ed to hit the winning boundary. In fact Toby had decided once they needed 4 to win it had to be a boundary to win it and nothing else would do! As if to prove the point, he turned down a single for Ed that could even have been a two down to long on, leaving Ed no choice but to smack the final ball past the midwicket boundary! This was a great run chase, set up by a very disciplined bowling performance enabling victory with 5.3 overs to spare.

So great bowling, great batting but don't mention the fielding! :)