A young U15 side put in a spirited performance against Portsmouth in
their first match of the season, before going down to defeat by 15 runs.
Skipper Alex Thomas won the toss and asked Portsmouth to bat first on
a dry, low-bouncing track. Openers Palmer-Goddard and Randall got off
to a flyer, scoring 45 off the first three overs and it took an
excellent catch by U13 Ben Anscombe off Rob Straw to slow Portsmouth’s
momentum.
‘Field’s bowlers gradually tightened their grip, catches were held
and, buoyed by two brilliant run-outs from Will Grange, 96 for 5 at the
half-way stage became only 120 for 9 after the allotted 20 overs – a
tremendous effort by our lads.
Matt Friend (2 for 7) and Dan Parry (2 for 18) bowled impressively on
their u15 debuts and received good support from the rest of the
bowlers, in particular Straw, Harvey and Pocock, who collected one
wicket apiece. Pocock conceded just a single off his 4 overs, a
fantastic effort.
In reply, Petersfield openers Thomas and Broadhurst looked
comfortable against Pompey’s pace attack, putting on 30 for the first
wicket. When both fell to spin, some clean hitting from Dan Parry (11)
and a lively 36-run partnership from Josh Bird (25) and Rob Straw (10),
gave the U15s a sniff of victory. However the target remained
tantalizingly out of range, despite some intelligent batting from Ben
Anscombe at the death.
This was an extremely encouraging team effort by the U15s first time
out. Playing Portsmouth at St Helens is never an easy task, but the lads
showed great appetite for the contest and grew in confidence as the
match went on. Work needs to be done on some aspects of the ground
fielding and cutting down on the number of extras conceded. But
performances like this hold out great promise for the season ahead. Well
done boys.
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