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| Cricket Under 9 A Team 'Blog' |
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Wednesday 27 June 2007 vs Lambrook Haileybury. (At Home) Eagle House batted first and scored 236 in their alloted overs. Our final game of the season and our only home game, there was a lot riding on this. We won the toss and elected to bat, hoping to set a formidable target and then keep their run scoring to a minimal with tight bowling and fielding. All did not go according to plan. Our first pair, James and Noah, started brightly. They didnt lose a wicket and ended their four overs on 212, a good effort. Next in were Charlie Waters and Oscar. Unfortunately for these two, the Lambrook bowlers chose these four overs to put in their best spells of the match, and we found ourselves in a bit of trouble. Adam and Charlie Saxby came in and steadied the ship somewhat, but we were still a long way from posting a competitive total. Mohammed and Hassan then came in and played beautifully, putting on 38 runs in their 4 overs.Mohammed was, as he has been all season, the master blaster and carted the bowlers to all parts of the ground.Goerge and Harry were our final pair and unfortunately couldn't capitalise on the destruction caused by Mohammed and Hassan.We lost a few needless wickets and ended our innings on a rather meagre 236 runs. Lambrook Haileybury batted second and scored 238 in their alloted overs. It was going to take a Herculean effort to restrict Lambrook to anywhere near our our total. This is exactly what this team produced. We took to the field looking for breakthroughs straight away, and Noah obliged with a wicket in the first over. This seemed to spur the guys on with bodies being put in the way of every ball and the bowlers giving away very few extras. Every run was precious and the guys knew it. After eight overs the game was very finely balanced,with Lambrook on 216. This was mainly due to the bowling of Oscar and Harry, who both bowled by far their best spells of the season. Adam was amazing behind the stumps, nothing got past him all afternoon and huge credit must go to him for making some tremendous stops. The game got increasingly tight with it all coming down to the last over. Lambrook needed 5 runs to win and if we took a wicket it would be our game. Hassan, (our bowler of the season) was chosen to bowl this over. Hassan came steaming in and bowled a fraction too far down leg side, the batsmen got bat on it and that was all that was needed for the ball to rocket to the boundary. They got a two off the next delivery and we needed a wicket to get back into it. Their rather unadventurous batsmen just kept the next four deliveries off his stumps,and we had lost the game. I was extremely proud of the way every boy in the team gave his all all in their innings, we left our best gutsy display for last. It has been an absolute pleasure to coach these boys and i wish you all the best of luck for the future. Result: Eagle House lost by 2 runs Wednesday 13 June 2007 vs Horris Hill. (At Horris Hill) Eagle House batted first and scored 316 in their alloted overs. For this game we were restricted to 8 players per team, so after much debate I picked the 8 who I felt had done consistantly well over the entire season. We won the toss and elected to bat, a good decision on a very nice looking turf track. Adam Robinson and Charlie Waters opened the innings for us and after a shaky start managed to score a very solid 25 in their 5 overs, our best opening partnership of the season and a good foundation for the rest of our innings. Adam Bailey and Harry Baldock were in next and both played measured yet sensible innings to push our total up to 246. Mohammed and Hassan Rubbani were in next ,and Mohammed, as he has done all season, dispatched the helpless Horris Hill bowlers to all corners of the field.He was ably supported by Hassan and these to pushed our total up to a very healthy 288. Zeus Sekwalor and George Wilks came to the crease and with some of the best shots I have seen either of them play this season moved our total along to 319. This was a great batting performance and I was very happy especially with our calling between the wickets and the fact we did not throw any wickets away.Great effort lads. Horris Hill batted second and scored 259 in their alloted overs. Things started off well for us with Adam Robinson claiming a wicket in his first over.The fielding was tight and I could sense that this was one game we would not let slip from our grasp. The Horris Hill batsmen had a bit of a purple patch with runs being scored fairly quickly, but it did not take long for order to be restored with first George taking a wicket in his over and then Zeus taking two in the next over.The Horris Hill boys had no reply to our bowling which was absolutely spot on, with wickets tumbling at regular intervals. Harry Baldock bowled his best spell of the season and it was quite amusing to watch the batsmen getting into all sorts of trouble trying to play Harry's deliveries. Mohammed and Hassan bowled with their usual vigour and were again rewarded with wickets, Hassan taking two and Mohammed taking three. With our attack in this kind of form there was no way Horris Hill were going to get anywhere near our total, and they finished on 259 runs. An extremely professional performance guys, well done. Result: Eagle House won by 57 runs
Wednesday 06 June 2007 vs Yateley Manor. (At Yateley) Eagle House batted first and scored 250 in their alloted overs. AAh half-term,a lovely time to rest away from the rigours of schoolwork,not a good week away if we are going to forget everything we learned about cricket before the holidays started. After the high of the Aldro game we were bought crashing down to earth with a rather inept display away at Yateley. We started brightly enough with Adam Robinson clipping the second ball of the innings to the the boundary for four,but after that found the going very tough.After our first four pairs we were only on 208,which effectively meant we had only scored 8 runs in 16 overs.(remember it is -5 if a batsman goes out.This was due to poor decision making and running between the wickets(one of the departments of the game we had excelled in before half term)as well as some good bowling and fielding by our opponents.Hassan and Mohammed Rubbani came in and steadied the ship with some superb strokeplay and good decision making.They scored an excellent 33 runs in their four overs,an excellent achievement.Zeus Sekwalor and George Wilks were the last pair in and also batted extremely well until Zeus lost his wicket twice in the last over.Our final score 250 and we would have to field very well to restrict them to anywhere near that. Yateley Manor batted second and scored 319 runs in their alloted overs. The bowling and fielding followed much the same pattern as the batting,with us seeming to have lost our edge during the holidays.Normally reliable bowlers were fairly erratic at stages and we gave them far too many easy runs.Hassan Rubbani came into the attack and caused all sorts of problems with his left arm seamers but unfortunately it was far too little far too late.Bowlers who must be mentioned for taking wickets are Hassan,George and Zeus who all put in a huge amount of effort on the day.My man of the match was Mohammed Rubbani firstly for his batting heroics and then for returning figures of 3 overs for 3 wickets in his bowling spell.To our credit we never gave up and managed to restrict Yateley to 319 in their innings when at a stage it seemed they would get a huge total.There are two more games this season and now that we are back in the swing of things I hope we will put together two superb performances. Result: Yateley Manor won by 69 runs Saturday 19 May 2007 vs Aldro.(At Aldro) Eagle House batted first and scored 90 all out. We got to Aldro and after much discussion decided we would play the proper form of cricket. Amid much excitement I explained to the boys that while this was good in a way,it also meant that if you lost your wicket you were out,there were no second chances.The transformation was incredible. We came out to bat like a professional unit,focussed and determined.After 10 overs we were in a great position at 60 for three.The calling and running between the wickets was excellent as was the shot selection.The only slight disappointment was that we couldn't really capitalize on our excellent start and we were eventually all out for 90 runs.I was very impressed with that effort as I am sure were all the supporters.Special mentions must go to Harry Baldock who made a commanding 16 runs coming in at number 3.He was well supported by George Wilks who made 14 and Hassan Rubbani who chipped in with a quick-fire 12. Aldro batted second and made 88 for 7 of their alloted 20 overs. With a belief and spirit that I have not seen from the boys yet this season,we took to the field and prepared to defend our total. We again started a little waywardly with even the most reliable bowlers giving away too many extras. Adam Bailey must be mentioned for his great work behind the stumps, stopping most of the balls that came his way. George Wilkes struck in his second over with a good delivery and we were on our way. A measure of the determination of the team was that I not once had to remind anyone to walk in and also the way the boys threw their bodies around the in the outfield.It remained a very tight contest throughout,with first Aldro upping the run rate and on course to get the total easily and then Eagle House fighting back and taking wickets at crucial times to get themselves back into it. In the end we won by 2 runs in what was one of the most exciting games I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Again Hassan Rubbani was the pick of the bowlers, closely followed by Mohammed.I must also mention Charlie Waters and Harry Baldock whose bowling at the end was tight and on target. It's never nice to bowl under pressure like that and these two stuck to their tasks admirably. A big congratulations must go to the whole team who all contributed to this stunning victory. Well done guys! Result: Eagle House won by 2 runs Wednesday 16 May 2007 vs Crosfields.(At Crosfields) Crosfields batted first and scored 267 in their alloted overs. We won the toss and sent Crosfields in to bat. From the outset we gave away far too many extras and had it not been for some superb fielding I think this game may have got away from us very early on. Our bowling just seemed to lack any penetration and direction and the Crosfields batsmen had to do very little to keep the score ticking along.We also struggled to take wickets with our first breakthrough coming in the 19th over. This was due to some very good strokeplay from Crosfields and some poor catching in the field.I calculated our extras at the end of their innings and discovered that with wides and no-balls we had actually gifted the Crosfields team no less than 70 runs. Still I felt that 267 was a reachable target for a team that had done consistantly well with the bat. Mention must be made of Hassan Rubbani who was again the star with the ball and ended with figures of 3 overs bowled, 3 wickets taken for a very miserly 4 runs. Eagle House batted second and scored 190 in their alloted overs. I don't know what the boys had at tea but we never really showed up for the second half of this game.Our batting was by far the poorest so far this season with our running between the wickets nothing less than atrocious. We lost 12 wickets to run-outs and this eventually sealed our fate. The really frustrating thing was that this was an area we had worked on and that the boys had really done well at in training. Unfortunately nobody was able to take charge and restore the innings and I can't recall a cricket shot being played all afternoon.We were all disappointed at the end of this with everyone realizing that we had had a very bad day at the office. Result: Crosfields won by 77 runs Saturday 12 May v Ludgrove. (At Ludgrove) Eagle House batted first and scored 190 in our alloted overs. In conditions that can at best be described as miserable we lost the toss and were put into bat by Ludgrove.The boys found the going tough and runs were very hard to come by on a quickly deteriorating pitch. After batting very well in our first three fixtures the rain seemed to affect us we lost wickets at regular intervals. At the end of our 24 overs we only managed to post a total of 190 runs. Mention must be made of Mohammed and Hassan Rubbani who both batted very very well and to Zeus Sekwalor who chipped in with some important runs. Shot of the day went to Oscar Gaff who played a beautiful cover drive for four. Ludgrove batted second and scored 280 runs in their 24 overs. We went onto the field knowing we had to take a few early wickets if we were to have any chance of defending our total. Charlie Waters struck with his second delivery and a glimmer of hope seemed to to be appearing. Unfortunately this never materialized as a mixture of wayward bowling and the terrible conditions took their toll. I must admit I felt really sorry for the boys,some of who had to bowl off a one pace run up and use a ball which was very wet and slippery. On the up side our fielding was the best I have seen it and the determination never dwindled. In the bowling department special mention must be made of Charlie Saxby who took 2 wickets in an over. Result: Ludgrove won by 90 runs Wednesday 9 May v Cranleigh.(At Cranleigh) Eagle house batted first and scored 290 runs in their alloted overs. We were sent into bat by Cranleigh in what was to be some of the boys first game with a hard cricket ball. There was much excitement as new pads and gloves were put on for the the first time.We batted very well with all the pairs contributing to the total.Our running between the wickets and more importantly our awareness was a lot better than the week before and this helped us to post a very competitive total of 290 runs.Mohammed Rubbani was in magnificent form as he helped himself to 27 runs off 11 balls. Cranleigh batted second and scored 321 off their 18 overs. This game was in the balance for a long part of the afternoon,but we failed to take a few catches that could have swung the game our way.The rest of our fielding and our bowling was exttremely tight and we made Cranleigh work very hard for all their runs.It is very pleasing to see the way the boys are starting to understand how cricket works--there is still a lot of work to be done however. In the end we couldn't contain their batsmen but the margin of victory flattered them somewhat.Hassan Rubbani proved to be our best bowler on the day with his tricky left arm seamers. Result:Cranleigh won by 31 runs Wednesday 2 May v Daneshill.(At Daneshill) Daneshill batted first and scored 263 in their alloted overs. Our second fixture and after alot of hard work during the week both the boys and i were expecting a vast improvement.We won the toss and put Daneshill into bat.We looked far sharper in the field and our bowling was of a much higher standard than Saturday.Goerge Wilks and Adam Robinson both bowled a beautiful line and length and with some determined fielding,made life very difficult for the Daneshill batsmen.We managed to restrict them to a fairly small total of 263 which I was delighted with and personally felt that it was a very gettable total if we batted well. Eagle House batted second and scored 236 in their 18 overs. We got off to a fairly shaky start and unfortunately never recovered.There were some beautiful shots played,but every time we seemed to be clawing our way back into the game we would needlessly throw wickets away which made the job at hand very difficult.Most of these wickets were silly run-outs with a general lack of communication being the main problem.Harry Baldock and Mohammed Rubbani were the chief run scorers,but not even these two could pull off the victory. Result:Daneshill won by 27 runs Saturday 28 April vs Highfield School.(At Highfield) Firstly just a quick explanation of how the under/9 matches work. We usually play 12-a side pairs and each pair bats for 3 or 4 overs depending on the pre-agreed length of the game.Normal cricket rules apply exept if a batsmen goes out he loses 5 runs and continues batting.Wides and no-balls are counted as two runs and no extra balls are bowled. Each team starts the game with 200 runs(in case too many wickets are lost which would result in a negative score).The home school also decides which ball we use( normal cricket ball or the softer incredi-ball version).This could prove something of a frustration for us as 8 of our 9 games are away. Eagle House batted first and scored 285 in our alloted overs. We lost the toss and were sent in to bat by Highfield.The boys were all fairly nervous and excited but this was all soon forgotten as Adam Robinson and James Fowlie got us off to a solid start in our first fixture of the season.It soon became apparent to me however how much work would have to be done.Our running between the wickets and communication between batsmen was poor and this together with some excellent fielding led to us losing valuable wickets with suicidal running.The boys were also guilty of ball watching and lots of runs went a begging.Mohammed and Hassan Rubbani played very well as did Harry Baldock and Noah Walton who all added very valuable runs.Charlie Waters' running between the wickets was superb and his partners in our forthcoming matches are going to have to be on their toes. Highfield batted second and scored 394 in their 24 overs. For most of our boys this was the first time they had bowled in a match situation.The Highfield boys took advantage of this and notched up some very large partnerships.For our first outing of the season we didnt do too badly but I noticed the concentration wavered from time time to time and some of the boys seemed genuinely surprised when the ball came whizzing their way. We tried hard but couldn't contain the runs and were beaten fairly convincingly.I look forward to a little time with the boys so we can start again with the back to basics approach. Result: Highfield won by 109 runs
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