U9 ease to victory over High Roding

The Plateau survived the previous evening’s downpour to allow the U9’s fixture against High Roding to go ahead. U9 were kindly allowed to bat first whilst a couple of players made their way to the ground.

Ibrahim found the boundary twice on the way to top score with an unbeaten 11. He opened the batting well with Farai, who played some nice shots before getting out to a fine catch at the end of the first set of overs.

Theo, who was making his U9 debut, and Angus also struck boundaries as U9 tried to make the most of some indifferent bowling. The scoreboard continued to tick over at an almost steady rate as U9 closed their innings on 246 for the loss of just 4 wickets.

The consistency of the U9s bowling does continue to improve with each game. Rayaan, Angus and Jasper overwhelmed the opening pair, taking 5 wickets between them before Zafir kept the pressure on, conceded just 1 run off the final over of the first set to leave High Roding struggling a little on 189/5.

Felix, Theo and Ibrahim also chipped in with wickets as High Roding recovered the innings to close 22 runs behind on 224/8. The final wicket to fall was an act of incredible misfortune, as the batter clipped the ball and started to run only for the ball to spin back off the pitch and hit the unguarded stumps.

The U9 fielding from deep was excellent throughout this game. Several throws from distance homed in on the stumps and Felix and Ibrahim both took lovely catches. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about fielding from close range, with U9 either sacrificing accuracy with powerful overarm throws or attempting to outrun the batters by carrying the ball to the stumps. Certainly something for the coaches and players to work on in training over the coming weeks.