Youngsters lead the way

The sun shone on the Village as lockdown restrictions eased to allow for the cricket season to begin. The Sunday Development side gave eight u18’s the opportunity to take on N2. Skipper Pryank won the toss and elected to field. Opening bowlers Callum and Devan both had great spells testing the N2 batsmen however neither were rewarded with the wickets they deserved. The change bowlers Yohance and Alexander were more fortunate. Yohance had a shaky start, but soon found his line which proved to be deadly, taking a wicket. Alexander was the best bowler of the day with his on the money off spin. The 15 year old also found the stumps once, but was unlucky to not take 3 or 4. Even though he rocked up half an hour late, Ronit injected the field with some much needed energy. Despite working with an older ball, he came on and bowled fantastic outswingers, one found an edge and made its way through to the keeper and 2 others sent the bails flying. Lefty Sam wanted in on the wickets. He managed to get the 30 over old ball to move, catching a top edge, which sent the ball flying into the air, an easy catch. Despite taking 2 wickets Pryank selflessly limited his overs, 2 could have been three but he put down a very difficult catch. Sanket’s stock ball was proving difficult to face, the batsmen were struggling to score. After a sanitization break his bowling depreciated due to the ‘grip of the ball’ post wipe down. After some very village fielding he was sent to 12th man to allow Callum to come back on for the last over, Zak put down his chance behind the stumps despite that Callums tidy last over summarised the fantastic effort from the youngsters.

Chasing 151 village opened with debutant Rohan and Inthi. The pair looked comfortable from the offset. With an easily achievable score they batted with freedom. The opening bowlers had no luck in dismissing either batsman. Desperate to take a wicket the change bowlers came on, however they were met with some expensive overs as the pair found the boundary with ease. The opposition's opening bowler and captain came back on to dismiss Inthi on 27, with a good ball finding his pads. Zak came in at 3 and looked to form a partnership with Rohan. Rohan cracked on playing some fantastic shots that found the boundary. His 8th 4 of the day got him his 50, despite being the star of the show the youngster was humble and unwillingly raised the bat. Unfortunately there weren't enough runs in the game to get a century. Shot of the day was a big 6 from Rohan which narrowly missed a group of opposition spectators conveniently sitting at cow corner. His partner also played some nice shots, the best of which was punched over the bowlers head and was well on its way to the boundary when an opposition player heroically put his knee on the line to stop the 4. In the 28th over the pair surpassed the target. Rohan and Zak walked off with 71 and 30 respectively.

A comfortable win led by the youngsters gave an insight into the future of MHVCC, which by all accounts is looking bright!

By Zak Demetriades