Our U19s made it to the Ravi Bopara Essex U19s Finals Day at Garon Park, needing to beat Upminster in the Semi-Final.

Our skipper Austin Osborne won the toss and bowled first. Alex Banhidai took an early wicket to bring Upminster’s best player Callum Berry to the crease. He had previously scored big runs against us and looked in great touch again as he smashed Austin for huge back to back 6s. Fortunately, just as he looked like he was going to take the game away, Banno trapped him LBW.

Upminster continued to score very quickly. However, we continued to take wickets to just about keep them in check. Upminster were 95-3 at the half way point. It’s at this stage, that Matt Fisk (who flew back early from holiday to take part in finals day!) took 3 quick wickets to put us on top, including a great catch from Max in the deep. Upminster again recovered to get up to 155-6 off 16 overs but a flurry of late wickets from Austin and James Frans, including a stunning catch by Henry Hawkins, limited them to 173 all out.

Unfortunately, we lost a wicket second ball. However, that did not stop Max Sanderson from playing the best junior innings I’ve ever seen. After one early life, Max proceeded to absolutely destroy each and every Upminster bowler as he hit eight 4s and nine 6s! A couple of the 6s must’ve gone close to 100m! Max reached his richly deserved 100 off just 42 balls. He put on 148 in 13 overs with Will Dommett who played very well himself for his 39. We lost a couple of late wickets but ended up chasing 174-4 in just 16.4 overs. It was a great team performance in the field to restrict them to 173 and it’s hard to understate Max’s unbelievable knock in the chase.

That win meant we faced Shenfield in the final! Match Report following shortly…