OEs U15 Bs, led by Charlie, won the toss and elected to field to make use of the morning dew and dust off those cobwebs in this first match of the season. Sasha, only in his second year playing cricket, and Aarav set the tone with some accurate new ball bowling, and that discipline continued well through the innings with only 14 extras compared to Bickley Park’s 23.

OEs rotated all 10 bowlers with two-over spells, with everyone getting a good look at the conditions and finding their rhythm for the long season ahead. Damian, Charlie (who also got the first breakthrough), and Neerav kept it in the channel outside off, while the 4 spinners - Dan (with an excellent run out at the non-strikers end), Yuvan (with a good stumping from Rocco), Ronan, and Xav - complemented them with tight spells. George stepped up to the challenge of bowling at the death, which brought the highlight of the first innings - Dan’s brilliant tumbling catch at long off to end Bickley Park’s top scorer’s knock.

George & Ronan set out to chase down 145 in 20 overs with a solid start, respecting the good balls and putting away the bad ones. Ronan’s wicket in the “power play” though gave the opposition sufficient momentum to stifle George’s enterprise, and subsequently with Xav and Dan too, all of who unfortunately kept finding the fielders whenever they tried to put away the full tosses and short ones over the next 8-9 overs.

The chase was almost fully out of reach by the time Rocco stepped to the crease at #5, but he did have enough time in the middle to show the older boys the way with a couple of aerial hits on either side of the wickets and some excellent rotation of strike. Charlie, Sasha, Damian and Neerav also got short outings in the middle to cap a chase where there were a lot of takeaways in the art of chasing…

A bittersweet end with the As enjoying a terrific chase to beat a much-loved neighbourhood club, but a lot to look forward to with the Bs over the next 2 months!