U12 League Match v Marton, report

We so nearly beat Marton for the first time, as we started the last over two runs ahead, largely thanks to a fine innings of 22 from Joe Shields. However, Finnis Barlow fell victim to a debatable lbw decision with 2 balls left, he was back in his crease but the bowler was left arm over the wicket and therefore there has to be a chance the ball pitched outside the leg stump. Frantic attempts to run extras then resulted in two run outs which widened the margin of defeat to 17 runs. If we had displayed a little more cricketing nous earlier in the match, it wouldn't actually have been that close at the end and we would have been far enough ahead for the lbw not to matter.

Marton won the toss and elected to bat, their first two batsmen made a good start but were pegged back by John Clark taking a catch off James Kelly's bowling. Their second pair made slower progress, losing another wicket to a James Kelly runout. The third pair took the score on to 253 net, as they lost one more wicket as Joe Shields hit the stumps. While the fourth pair batted, the score dropped to 242 net, with Adam Heseltine taking two wickets in two balls with well pitched up deliveries and John Clark also taking a wicket.

The Richmondshire innings got off to a poor start when Owen Kelly was dismissed, but he recovered to hit 3 classy fours while his brother James kept his wicket intact. John Clark was also dismissed early in his innings, but he and Adam brought the score back up to 216 net. The third pair were Joe Shields and Ted While, Ted wisely kept Joe on strike as much as possible while Joe scored 22 runs before being dismissed near the end of his innings going for a big hit, so that when Finnis and Jonny Carr arrived at the crease, we were 6 runs ahead. Jonny was dismissed early on, but they brought the score back up to 244 net, before a crazy last over which contained 2 wides and 3 wickets. Might have been different if I was umpiring at that end, but there you go. At least we have another chance in 2 weeks time when we will have Sam, Matty, Will and Toby available.