Day 7 - Match day 2

The boys were on a high after winning their first match and were excited to be playing against the Anuradhapura Central District U17 team. This was played at an Army Ordanance ground, which was a stunning location with the pitch lined by palm trees. 

We lost the toss and they elected to field, which wasn’t ideal as this would mean we would be fielding during the heat of the day. The batting was opened with Benjy Furrer and Adam Cooper, who got us off to a great start with a 96 partnership and some very solid batting. Benjy was enjoying himself out on the square as he was playing a range of expansive shots as he pulled and cut the balls away for several 4’s and even opened his shoulders up to blast a couple of 6’s. Adam was doing an excellent job rotating the strike and punishing the bad balls. Sadly the partnership was broken when Benjy was bowled for 63 runs. 

Next in was Matt Lambert, who sadly lasted about as long as the walk to the crease because 3 balls later having been caught he was walking back to the pavilion having added 1 run to the team total.

Henry Davis had to hurriedly get his pads on and get out to the wicket with Mr Hale’s wise words of “play your own game” ringing in his ears. Henry set about trying to steady the ship, whilst looking to play his shots. Sadly Adam Cooper fell quite quickly as he was caught and bowled for 34 runs from 67 balls, he had done an excellent job as the opener in seeing off their opening bowlers. This left the total at 116 runs for 3 wickets. Matt Fisk came out to join Henry as the wind was picking up and the Sri Lankan team were getting more vocal in the field.

Henry lasted a couple of overs before he got trapped LBW scoring 6 runs. The spin bowlers were starting to cause us a few issues as they were firing the ball through with a bit more pace then we often use in England and the boys also commented that it was difficult to pick their variations as they were very well disguised. Freddie Chate came out to bat next at number 6 with the score 120 for 4. 

Freddie came in to try and steady the ship a little as he blocked his way to 7 runs from 18 balls. Sadly Freddie misjudged the spin as he came forward to block a ball and was given LBW by the umpire following a very enthusiastic appeal from everyone.

Matt Fisk continue to try and add to the score and played a number of nice shots but was having trouble finding the gaps as the bowlers were making it hard to get the ball away. Leo Kendrick was next out to support Matt, sadly Matt chipped one back to the bowler who took a routine catch as Matt trudged back to the dressing room with 18 runs from 26 balls. 

We then got organised with our ducks in a row, quite literally with our next 4 batsmen all getting out for zero runs between them as we saw ourselves go from 150-5 to 154 for 10 and that was due to a Leo Kendrick boundary. There were a few strange moments as Henry Welland didn’t realise he had been given out as the opposition celebrated around him and Charlie Smith who went out with the intention of “blocking and staying in” proceeded to take a big swing and return with a golden duck. This left us all out for 154 runs in 31.3 overs! 

After a good lunch we return to the field with renewed vigour as we set about trying to stop the opposition getting our total. Will Hale opened the bowling and struck early in his second over removing the opener as he joined our raft of ducks.

The next batsman in batted really well with the other opener and we struggled to cause many issues as they proceeded to put on 122 runs before the other opener retired hurt as he pulled the ball for 6 and hurt his knee in the process. The confusion that this caused allowed Matt Fisk to strike as Henry Welland took a good catch to remove their 3rd batsman for 53 runs. Matt then struck again as he was getting the ball to turn and the batsman tried to play it over the top but this was snaffled by Fin Watkins.

Sadly despite a valiant effort in the field the oppositions batting proved too strong as they were able to find gaps in our field by punishing any balls that were short. They managed to get 158 runs in 27.1 overs to win the game.

Notable performances were Benjy Furrer with 63 runs and Adam Cooper with a hard earned 34. With the ball Will Hale had figures of 1 wicket for 19 runs from 3 overs and Matt Fisk who took 2 wickets for 12 runs from 4 overs. Although he didn’t get any reward for his bowling Alex Banhidai also had good figures of 17 runs from 5 overs. Sadly our collapse at the end of the batting innings made it a tough task to defend the total but it was a good performance in the field in a wonderful setting!