Croft show resilience and fight against league leaders
Avoncroft’s Under 12s produced their best performance of the season away to unbeaten Stourbridge on Sunday, but ultimately their hosts proved too strong as Croft lost by 36 runs.
Bowling first, Croft faced an absolute barrage of shots early on from Ben Brigdale, who retired on 30 in only the fifth over, taking his season’s total in the U12 league to 142 runs without being dismissed! Once Brigdale retired, things calmed down a bit but Stourbridge continued to comfortably accumulate runs until the introduction of Oscar Jinks and Oisin Morgan into the attack. Jinks (1-14) picked up Croft’s first wicket, trapping Alastair Richie LBW for 10, before Oisin Morgan picked up two more wickets thanks to catches from wicketkeeper Henry Jinks and Matthew Athey. Morgan bowled his maximum 4 overs straight through, picking up 2-12 and played a big part in restricting Stourbridge to a respectable score as they finished on 110-3. Harry Davenport also reached his retirement score for Stourbridge, hitting 31no.
Croft’s response started in the worst possible way, with two wickets falling in the first over. Oscar Jinks and Sam Taylor set about repairing the damage, with a partnership of 46 for the third wicket before Jinks was run out for 14. Taylor continue to push on, displaying an array of positive shots in a welcome return to form. He looked on course to be the first Croft batsmen of the season to reach the retirement score until he chipped a good ball from Sukhjot Paul back to the bowler and was dismissed for 22. Matthew Athey (13no) and Fin Morris (5no) kept the run chase going to the end, but the accuracy of the Stourbridge bowlers meant the target was out of reach as Croft finished on 74-4.
The boys should be proud of their performance, showing excellent spirit to fight back from a tough start and also demonstrating greatly improved skills with some tight bowling, energetic fielding and resilient batting against the best side they have faced this year.
Match Report by Paul Athey, 03/07/2017
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