Oh so close. On day 1 we put in one of our best bowling and fielding performances against Upper Hills who were coming equal 4th. Jack took 2/2, Jed 2/4, Ben 2/8 with John 1/9 and Owen 1/14 all taking wickets. Our best effort was in the field. We held 8 catches and only dropped 3. Our ground fielding was also very good. How about Darcy with 3 catches – how good was that effort.

We then had 8 overs to bat out the day and lost 2 wickets to very good bowling. We had a big chance to get home in this game with 50 overs to get 58 runs.

After the week of rain the grass was longer and they fielded and bowled very well – they only let through 12 extras over 58 overs. Owen and Joel started off very well against good bowling. They saw off the first 8 overs and set the platform for a solid score. To Upper Hills credit, they continued to bowl and field well. No one really got on top of the bowling until the last few overs – John with 13*, Owen 7*, Darcy 6* with a few overs at the end and Jonty also got 6*.

The game got interesting at the end when we needed 24 runs off the final 26 balls with 5 wickets left. We almost got there. With 2 balls to go, a boundary would have won the match but a big shot was cut-off just short of the boundary. Although we went down there are many positives; most of the kids got a with the bat (those that didn't will bat high next match), we proved that defensively, we have solid techniques and our fielding and bowling was high class. With a bit more experience, we can then convert the solid starts into a good runs.

John’s highlight
• Our bowling and catching was excellent
• We lost the game but the last over was fun – we should have won it with a bit more luck
• Darcy’s 3 catches
• Joel and Owen batted really well to see off the opening bowlers.

This week
Round 7 this weekend is against Warrawee Gold (another west Penno Team) at Cedarwood starting at 9.00 am. The Golds are coming first so it should be a big game.

John, Raj and Ross

Posted by Ross Anderson on November 26, 2007 10:02 PM