Portsmouth and Southsea v Petersfield Under 13

Portsmouth and Southsea v Petersfield Under 13

Venue - St James

Result - Portsmouth and Southsea won by 9 wickets

The lovely St James ground hidden away in the centre of Portsea Island played host to a very good game of cricket between the two sides.

Captain Matt Friend won the toss and elected to bat first to take advantage of the beautiful evening sunlight. Petersfield got off to a good start with openers Ben Anscombe (13) and Garbiel Broadhurst (30 not out / retired) putting on 24 for the first wicket before Anscombe was clean bowled. Matt Friend (24) joined Broadhurst and played some lovely straight shots (unusual for the very strong young man), a welcome site to both coaches. Once Broadhurst had retired Ben Turk (23) joined Friend at the crease and showed that he is as strong as Matt with some equally powerful shots before the run out of Turk trying to turn 1 ⅕ runs in to 2 runs with the score on 99. Turk soon followed trying to keep the momentum going. This prompted a late order collapse with only 2 players of the remaining 7 batsmen scoring any runs at all. It was a good comeback from the Portsmouth bowlers who looked a bit demoralised as the opening 4 scored their runs with Harry Watten (2 for 8) and Daniel Cox (3-20)

Petersfield took to the field with high hopes that their bowling attack could defend the score of 120. This proved not to be the case as Portsmouth and Southsea pounced on anything short to chase the score down in just under 14 overs for the loss of 1 wicket (a run out from captain Friend his second direct hit of the season). While the top 3 lads for Portsmouth and Southsea (Harry Gadd, Harry Watten and John Buckamn) batted very well they were aided with some very below par fielding from Petersfield. The body language of the Petersfield players was not good and it showed in their performance. Taking nothing away from the top four batsmen who batted well or the bowlers for Portsmouth but the real difference in the sides was the fielding.

Man of the Match as far as the coach is concerned was Matt Friend and Ben Turk