Bracebridge Heath V Lindum Gladiators

The U9s put in another sterling performance away to Bracebridge Heath, dominating the game from the first to the last ball. Even though Lindum were a player short this didn’t seem to phase the Lindum players who simply got on with playing their own game, oblivious to the opposition’s numerical advantage. The Gladiators were put into bat on what looked like an excellent batting surface with even bounce and good follow through. A decision that proved to be costly for Bracebridge Heath with Archie and William H scoring freely, hitting eight 4s off the first four overs. The second batting pair of Poppy and Hector had to be a little more patient in their batting and frustrated the quick bowling of Aneesh extremely well, managing to take runs when they came but without taking unnecessary risks. The third pair of Rohan and Jack came in and through excellent communication and good shot selection, managed to accelerate the scoring again, both getting into double figures. Being a player short meant one of Lindum’s players would bat twice, this opportunity fell to Poppy who came back into bat with Noah. Not in the least daunted by the task Poppy batted with intelligence rotating the strike with Noah like a seasoned pro. Noah for his part played with confidence hitting some eye pleasing shots to end the Lindum innings on 312 for 3.

At the halfway point the job seemed to be half done, a typical fielding performance from Lindum would surely be enough to guarantee another win. However, Lindum were a player down and no offer of a substitute fielder from the opposition was forth coming. So Lindum took to the field with seven players determined to put in another big performance encouraged by the offer from Amanda of a chocolate bar for any player who took a catch, firmly lodged in their grey matter. It wasn’t long before the first opportunity of a catch came, falling to Rohan who was fielding at mid-wicket, but sadly no chocolate bar this time. Another couple of chances came but were dropped before Rohan managed to hold onto one in the third over. Wickets continued to fall throughout the innings from an excellent bowling attack, with wickets from Archie, Rohan and Jack however, the star bowler was Hector taking three wickets for 7 runs. The fielders were also amongst the wickets with two run outs from some exceptionally shape throwing into the wickets culminating in a Bracebridge Heath’s reply of 250 for 8.