Overpowered and outgunned at Barby!

We arrived at the picturesque Barby ground to find we were up against a very keen side that contained at least 4 first team players and a couple of young county level players too.

Skipper Alan won the toss and thought we would have a bowl to try and make the most of first use of the wicket. It soon became apparent that Barby were taking this game quite seriously as their 1st team opener Nobes proceeded to hit boundaries at will, including a big six that went out of the ground, bounced on the road and into the neighbouring farmer's field!

Both Lewis and Tom stuck to their task well but anything too short or slightly overpitched was punished, resulting in a score of 60-0 off the first 11 overs. Tom picked up a deserved wicket in his 6th over and it was 65-1. Meanwhile Finlay Moffat had replaced Lewis and was getting plenty of turn and bounce from the wicket but chances eluded us.

The wicket had brought in young 1st team batsman Tarrant who was coached by former England wicketkeeper Chris Read and it showed as he played a very mature innings, respecting the good balls but punishing anything loose. When Nobes retired in the 13th over (score 69) , Barby's skipper came to the crease and soon got going with some big hitting. We knew we were in for a lot of ball chasing and a large total to chase....

The skipper retired on a quickfire 50 and the total 138-1 at that stage. We had to wait until the 34th over when the score was on 192 to take our second wicket which was a stumping off Mitchell Boffin. Mitchell then bowled the excellent Tarrant for a well earnt 44 in his very next over and we had ideas of a few late wickets. Sadly this was not to happen as more hitting took the score to 239 before Vignesh scored a direct hit run out off the last ball of the innings.

With 240 to chase, openers Adam and Lee were sent out with the message of trying to achieve some respectability and accumulate where possible. Adam looked in good touch but unfortunately Lee was bowled for 1 by Beagley. This brought Finn Herrington to the crease who battled hard for a while but then fell, bowled by Nalagatla. At 26-2 we were struggling and unfortunately worse was to come when the same bowler then had Adam caught for a well played 22 and when Finlay Moffat and Tom Hilton fell to the same bowler in the same over, we were really up against it at 37-5. At this stage, Nalagatla had bowled 5 consecutive maidens and taken 4 wickets!

Dylan was in and fighting hard and put on 21 valuable runs with Sam Mullaney who defended well against very tight bowling before falling for 1. Lewis then entertained with some lusty blows which was starting to drive the fielding side a bit mad until he was bowled for 11. Mitchell was out to the accurate Franks for 1 and then skipper Alan was left stranded on 6 after a couple of shots after Vignesh holed out for 7. All out for 91 in the 34th over.

When all's said and done, this was a bit of a mis-match really as our team was not set up to handle 1st team batsmen and bowlers who were playing hard to win. However, I was proud of the way we kept fighting when in the field and felt we did not let ourselves down.

Thanks again to Pete Orton for scoring, Rob Boffin for umpiring and the support we had from player's parents and families too on a pretty cold and blowy afternoon.

Onto Horton next for the rematch against Northampton Saints.

Alan Pitt