Third win of the season guarantees a joint-top finish for Avoncroft Under 12s
Having lost to a very strong Droitwich team in their previous game, Croft’s under 12s hit back with a 40 run victory over Cookhill to end a successful campaign with a record of 3 wins and 1 defeat.
Victory looked a long way off at the halfway stage, with some excellent batting from Cookhill, combined with some unusually wayward Croft bowling, contributing to Cookhill scoring 86 runs off the bat in their 12 overs. One saving grace for Croft was the 10 wickets that they took, resulting in a 30 run deduction and leaving a target of 57 to chase. Pick of the bowlers was Jack Wright, who took 3-15 with a promising spell of swing bowling. Kyle Shaw, Rohan Levy and Ben Athey also took wickets, with 4 run outs added for good measure.
Batting is not always the main strength of the Under 12 side, so it was especially pleasing to see each of the 8 lads applying learning from their previous games and putting this to good effect this time around. Of particular note was the improvement made in running between the wickets, both in terms of technique and decision making. Fin Morris and Rohan Levy set a solid platform with a partnership of 15 before Ben Taylor (10) and Kyle Shaw (10) kept up the momentum in their partnership of 24. The third pair of Ben Athey (14) and Oisin Morgan (14) put on a master-class of indoor batting, with a combination of solid shot-making, speedy running and calm decision-making resulting in a partnership of 34 in their 3 overs. By this point, Croft had edged ahead leaving Matthew Athey (12) and Jack Wright (9) to bring Croft home for victory.
All in all, the indoor cricket experiment has been a resounding success for the Under 12s and it will be exciting to see whether they can take some of the lessons they have learnt from these matches into the outdoor season in a couple of months time
Match Report by Paul Athey, 23/02/2018
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