U9's agonisingly close to victory

Skipper George Sleight won the toss and elected to field on a bright and breezy day at the May and Baker main pitch on Thursday evening in this U9 friendly against Upminster.

Regular breakthroughs were made by the home bowlers and fielders with three run outs slowing down the visiting batsmen. Wickets were taken by Tyler Fredericks, Krishan Kumar and one apiece for brothers George and Stanley Sleight and catches by Nathan Dowridge and George Sleight. At the close of their innings Upminster totalled 258 for 7.

The Goresbrook reply got off to a good start as three boundaries were struck by Tommy Smith (15*) in a partnership of 17 with Paranpreet but a net gain of only two runs was made as three wickets were lost. Second pair Matthew Elsom (5*) and Krishan Kumar (10*) both hit the ropes in their unbeaten partnership of 19 and third pair Albert Sleight (1*) and Archie Dias (1*) were also undefeated in their partnership of 20.

Fourth pair Stanley Sleight (4*) and Tyler Fredericks (2*) also left the field with their wickets intact having added 14 to the scoreboard.
Last pair George Sleight and Nathan Dowridge looked to be in total control but then George was dismissed by a spectacular caught and bowled and with the scores virtually level and a wide and a single from the final three balls of the innings, left the home team an agonising 4 runs short of victory.

Many of these youngsters were playing their second game in 5 days and showed great improvement in all the facets of the game.