BSCC U12 vs Berkhamsted (QF)

Unfortunately for the 4th year in a row, we fell just short of the Herts League Finals Day. However for the first time in a QF, we really turned up and performed, however didn’t quite have enough to get over the line.

We won the toss and elected to bowl, but unfortunately we allowed Berko to get off to a very quick start, with them scoring a lot of boundaries. We did extremely well to peg them after their start, in particularly Ben Foster, who’s spell changed their innings. He came on and bowled his 4 overs for just 21, taking 2 important wickets. There was also a fanatic run out from Paddy Ainsworth-Ledwidge which helped slow the run rate. All the other bowlers did a good job for the rest of the innings, eventually restricting Berko to 143-5, when at one point 150-160 looked likely.

We knew 143 was a very good score on our pitch but we were confident of chasing it, if we had a good start. Unfortunately we lost the in form Ben Foster early to a stunning catch, however Charlie Laking and Harry Pigram put on a good partnership, before miscommunication led to Harry being ran out for 12. Charlie went on to retire shortly after for an excellent 30*. Henry Hawkins came in at No.4 and did a great job of keeping the run rate up, scoring freely, however we continued to lose wickets at the other end in an effort to keep up with the 8-9 runs per over required. Henry retired for a quality 31*, but it was in vain as we fell short by 9 runs.

The difference between the teams was the first 5 overs in each innings, Berko managed to get off to a flyer, whereas we couldn’t quite match it, and were always playing catch up.

The big positive is this is the first QF that we’ve played close to our potential, which is a good sign moving on to next season, hopefully we can go one step further and make Finals day!

I’ve been very happy with the cricket we’ve played in the Herts League this year, with everyone contributing at different times. The boys’ attitude/behaviour in the Herts League has been spot on, which was one of the reasons we had our best league season so far.

We now move onto the final BTT match this Sunday, and then the Summer League which we will be playing a year up in this season.