Our U19s had the third and final group game tonight knowing a win was required to qualify for the next round.

The lads were confident having competed their incredible 230 chase a couple weeks ago. Colchester won the toss at Castle Park and elected to bat on what looked a good batting pitch.

We started absolutely outstandingly with the returning Alex Banhidai and skipper Austin Osborne bowling tightly creating pressure. Both openers took a deserved wicket a piece as they were well supported by the fielders, bar one dropped catch. Colchester’s best player came in at 3 and looked ominous and he hit a huge 6 absolutely miles into the river at Castle Park.

As Colchester started to get some momentum, Matt Fisk stepped up once again, and proceeded to run through Colchester’s entire middle order. 3 of Colchester’s batsmen all decided to take Fisky on over long on, and were all caught by Max Sanderson who looked like he was taking practice catches. Fisky completed his incredible 5-fer with a think nick through to Henry Hawkins, as he finished with unbelievable figures of 5-12 from his 4 overs.

Colchester contributed to crumble under the excellent BSCC bowling and fielding, with late wickets for Max, Harry Pigram and Paddy Ainsworth-Ledwidge. We ended up bowling Colchester out for just 77 runs in 16 overs.

In response, Henry Hawkins and Max Sanderson dominated from ball one, eliminating any hope of a comeback. Max in particular felt like he was scoring at will against whatever Colchester bowled at him. Having reached 39 off 18 balls, Max proceeded to hit back to back huge 6s to reach his 50 in just 20 balls. Henry (16*) at the other end was just knocking it about putting the bad ball away. Max finished it in style with back to back boundaries ending with an incredible 61* off 23 balls, as we chased 81-0 in just 6.4 overs!

Having run the U19s for many years now, it’s hard to think of a better all round performance. We were one dropped catch away from a perfect game.

That result means we will qualify for the Quarter-Finals, barring miraculous results in the other games. The draw for then QFs will be in a couple of weeks time, where we find out if we get a home or away draw. If it’s a home game, I hope to see lots of you at the club to support the lads as we try to make it Finals Day!