Shared series includes first T20 win of the season for the Under 12s
Avoncroft’s U12s took on Tanworth & Camp Hill CC in their annual pair of friendlies, sharing the spoils with one win and one defeat.
The first game, played in a pairs format, saw Tanworth impose their authority with the bat in the first innings. All the Tanworth batsmen finished in positive figures with Ted Clarke setting the standard with 31 runs. Croft were unusually loose in the field, with only Ellie Griffiths starring with the ball, picking up two wickets in two balls on her way to figures of 2-8. Fin Morris (1-21) picked up the other wicket to fall as Tanworth reached 129-3 in their 16 overs, for a net score of 314.
Croft struggled to make much of an impression with the bat until the third pair of Fin Morris and Jamie Stewart came together, scoring 14 and 17 respectively. Harvey Shaw continued the fightback with 17 runs of his own, but Croft still finished well short of their target, reaching 101-6 for a net total of 271.
The return fixture was played under T20 rules with the sides having to contend with a green, seaming wicket for the first time in months following recent rain. Tanworth chose to bat first but were kept largely in check thanks to some tight bowling in the early overs. The hosts kept their wickets intact however, and started to accelerate during the middle overs of the innings. Harry Stone (1-8) picked up the first wicket, trapping Preece LBW for 17, but the run rate continued to rise as Tanworth put the Croft fielders under pressure with some very aggressive running between the wickets. Whilst this helped to push the score along, it also resulted in 4 late run-outs as Tanworth finished on 90-5 from their 16 overs.
With 7 overs gone in their reply, Croft were well behind the rate as they struggled to 17-1. The turning point of the innings came in the 8th over as Louis Griffiths and Sam Taylor, having battled through some tough early overs started to come out of their shell, smashing 14 from the over. From that point on, both batsmen cut loose. Taylor started the onslaught with several powerful pull shots whilst Griffiths alternated between classy straight drives and punchy back foot shots on both sides of the wicket. Taylor (31*) was the first to reach his retirement score but that gave little respite to the Tanworth bowlers as Oscar Jinks came to the wicket playing shots from the off. Jinks raced to 18*, hitting over the top to great effect and taking the scores level with 11 balls to go. It was left to opener Louis Griffiths, who had anchored the innings throughout, to hit the winning runs to take him to his first ever retirement score of 30* and to take Croft to 91-1 to complete a 7 wicket victory.
As ever, the games were played in a great spirit against very sporting opponents and we are already looking forward to the return fixtures next year.
Match Report by Paul Athey, 14/08/18
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