U11 local derby won thanks to last wicket heros

Sunshine finally made an appearance as Team 2 u11s played Team 3 (mix u10s and u11s) in the Herts Summer league. Both teams won their first games against WGC and knew this would be important. Alex B team 2 skipper won the toss and inserted team 3 led by Adi. Early wickets for Conran, Arthur, Byron and Thomas allied to some great bowling restricted Team 3 to less than 20 off the first 8 overs. However Joseph(24*) and Thomas(14*) initially steadied the ship and with fearless running between the wickets and the occasional bolder stroke remained unbeaten to the end. Team 2 were guilty of some careless fielding at times and too many wides and no balls crept in. However 85 to win was a total they have exceeded a few times recently. Team 3s reply started well with Eddie making a quickfire 12 and Team 2 were comfortably above the run rate....however first Jack (1) took a wicket and then Charlie (2) struck with two wickets from his first two balls. Excellent bowling restricted Team 2 and although Thomas A and Byron survived they struggled to score against Grace, Thomas B, Adi and Joseph. Scoreboard pressure led to two run outs followed by wickets for Keir, Thomas B and another for Jack. Thomas B's wicket owing much to an excellent catch from Dylan T. Only Thomas A stood firm for Team 3 in making 19 off almost as many overs. Once Thomas A had gone we had our last wicket pair needing 11 more runs from 7 balls for an increasingly unlikely victory. Toby, dropped down the batting order due to illness, and Harry B were our last chance! Toby decided to write his own script! He hit the last ball of the penultimate over for four and then he and Harry managed to hit 7 off the first 4 balls of the last over. Given the situation they were in this was probably the best partnership we have seen from the u11s this season. Hats off the Team 3 who bowled and fielded superbly, selected more u10s than u11s and would have been worthy winners. But on the day Team 2 rode their luck and remain unbeaten going into the final round of the summer league.