Disappointing Afternoon

A disappointing afternoon was had by our U16’s in their second Matchplay outing of the season at Gidea Park and Romford on Sunday. We won the toss again and got off to the worst possible start when Max was adjudged LBW from the 3rd ball of the innings. A little gamble by the Coach put Jake in at 3 and after a careful start against the pace of County prospect Harry Phillips, Jake obliged with some lusty blows to give some impetus to the scoreboard. At the other end Ben Yeats went about his business in a very calm manner. Taking no chances and nicking runs where he could against a generally well disciplined GPR attack.

After Jake, a subdued John Tasker kept Ben company and moved the score along at a modest 4 an over. As overs started to tick by Ben upped his scoring rate while wickets fell at regular intervals at the other end. Indeed Bens last 41 came off just 31 balls, as Harlow posted a modest 157 off their 40 overs.

The GPR reply could not have started much worse as Thomas had Bist caught by Max at slip off the 4th ball. Game on we thought. That however brought that man Phillips to the crease and he backed up his tidy bowling 8 overs 4 for 22 with a very quick fire 68 to take the heat out of the situation and mean the result was never really in doubt. Abbas was very tidy in his 6 overs going for just 26, Thomas and Jake, normally very reliable, sadly both had off days and our problem with wides has not got any better. 

The introduction of twirlyman John Tasker and his beguiling leg breaks gave Harlow hope with 3 for 9 off just 3 overs but it was a forlorn hope as GPR ran out winners in the 27th over. Another 30 runs would have made it interesting, so we move on to Buckhurst Hill at the end of the month where a win would see us through to the next stage.