On Wednesday 29th April, our Under 11A team kicked off their season with a 20-over match against Blackheath at The Rectory Field. This season brings a new challenge for our Under 11As who have moved on from having played only Pairs cricket where each batting pair faces 4 overs, and each bowler bowls at least two overs). The team have moved up to the ‘normal cricket leagues’ where losing your wicket means going to sit down for the rest of the innings.

Stepping up to co-captain the Under 11As this season are Murphy Solway and Dominic Westwood. Murphy lost the toss and Blackheath opted to bat first on what was a sunny but somewhat blustery and chilly spring evening.

Blackheath went about their batting diligently ensuring that they played with straight bats and tried to compile runs through looking to keep the good balls out, taking singles where any fielders were found to be asleep or out of position. Unfortunately, for Sidcup fielders being out of position or lacking energy was very much a theme in the field (expect correcting this and raising the energy to be a feature of training for weeks to come). Pick of the bowlers this week were:
- Noah Selby who finished with figures of 1 wicket for 8 runs off two overs,
- Quinn Deacon who finished on no wickets for 8 runs off two overs,
- Kavya Saxena who finished with figures of 2 wickets for 12 off two overs,
- Murphy Solway who finished on no wickets for 10 runs but was unlucky to be hit for a boundary off an inside edge off what was otherwise a very fine second over.

Fine knocks from Caique Kulara and Fisal Safi (both retiring unbeaten on 25 runs each) were back up by good cameos from Charles Dillon and Araf Trabedi (who ended on 14 not out and 9 not out). Unfortunately for Sidcup Blackheath’s top scorer was ‘extras’ with Sidcup gifting their opposition 50 free runs to leave Blackheath on a total score of 134 for 3 off their 20 overs.

In reply, Sidcup’s openers (Noah Selby and Kavya Saxena) started tentatively under pressure from some pacy seam bowling from Fisal Safi who was able to extract bounce from what was a firm quick pitch. In the third over, Charles Dillon bowled Noah who, after starting confidently was undone stepping away from his stumps to a full straight delivery. Kavya fell shortly after bowled in similar fashion going back to a good length delivery from Araf Abedin to leave Sidcup 11 for 2.

This brought together the partnership of Seth Philip and Dominic Westwood. After taking some time to get going Seth and Dom started to build a steady partnership which saw Sidcup move on from to 59 for 2. Seth was the pick of the batters for Sidcup steadily accumulating singles and rotating the strike with his trademark dab through the backward point/gully region whilst dispatching short balls to the boundary through the square leg region. Despite finding runs harder to come by Dom dug in valiantly trying to find singles while picking up a boundary of his own in a partnership that steadied Sidcup to 59 for 2. Unfortunately, for Sidcup Dom was bowled by Aryaf Trabedi for 11 runs to leave Sidcup a long way from their target (130 runs to win) on 59 for 3 with only 8 over remaining.

Joining Seth at the crease, Murphy Solway started in tentative form against a strong pace attack. After managing to rotate the strike back to the in-form Seth, Seth played a magnificent pull shot to hit the danger man Safi for four through square leg to bring his total to 23. Unfortunately, two balls later Seth’s defences were finally breached with the best ball of the day and the final ball of Fisal’s spell. A quick good length ball that nipped away crept past Seth’s bat and clattered the very top of off stump. This left Sidcup now languishing on just 65 for 4, still requiring another 69 to win off just 42 balls.

Vani Saxena joined Murphy at the crease and with wickets in hand together they both dug in deep to try and claw back the score in what was rapidly faded light. Together Murphy and Vani put on a partnership of 38 runs with one ball remaining. Murphy on 20 not out and Vani on 5. By this time the match almost certainly out of reach with Sidcup on 111 meaning Blackheath were 23 runs ahead. And so with the final ball being delivered, Murphy (who was sensing a chance for some personal glory of getting to 25 not out) attempted to hit the Blackheath bowler back over his head for 6 only to be a little too early through his shot skying the ball up for an easy catch at shortish mid-off.
And so, the match ended in a loss for Sidcup Well done to Blackheath who were a well organised and well drilled team who gave us a good lesson in the commitment and energy needed in the field to win at this level.

Lots for our players to learn and take away from this result, as despite some excellent bowling and batting, ultimately the match was lost due to a lack of energy and discipline in the field resulting in Blackheath being gifted too many free singles and four boundaries that they should not have had. We go again in a few weeks and will be working hard on our fielding in training in both the next two Saturday sessions.