OECC U11 vs Winchmore Hill U11A, 30th April 2017

Winchmore Hill are very large club and are usually our toughest opponents every summer. Sunday was no exception, as OE's fielded a very young side which included two U8 boys (Ravi and Ethan) two U10 girls (Tamsin and Eloise).
Captain Jack won the toss and elected to bat - a brave decision given our inexperienced line up. However, opening with Ravi, Jack led the way well scoring heavily off the first over. The Winchmore Hill bowlers improved and began to exert some pressure. Jack fell to an excellent catch low down by the man at 45 on the leg side and the OE's batsmen began to get bogged down, reluctant to rotate the strike even when they had played a nice shot into a gap in the field. Ravi, Leo and Rudi all contributed some runs though and were determined to keep their wickets intact before an over by Jack for Winchmore Hill turned the match in their favour. Two wickets in two balls removed James and Tamsin leaving little Ethan to face the hat trick ball. He defended it superbly and batted extremely well to ensure we were able to bat out our overs. Nevertheless, our final total was only 50 runs which was going to be difficult to defend. After a quick team talk OE's took to the field and put in an excellent fielding performance. They were able to remove both openers quite cheaply, one to a brilliantly executed run out by Ethan and Jack. The bowling was quite tight and Jamie Reeve, bowling googlies, took a wicket with his first ever delivery for the club! Brave fielding (particularly Tamsin) prevented many boundaries and it took Winchmore Hill 13 overs to get the required 51 runs. Areas to work on are rotating the strike and calling when batting, also hitting the bad balls a little harder. The bowling and fielding was excellent however and the manager was very pleased with the attitude of the players on both sides.