A sobering debut in Crathie

However, this was not to be the case.

A youthful looking Mannofield team lined up to face a senior Crathie side and having won the toss I elected to have a bowl. Throwing the new ball the CC – Clark Cameron things slowly got off and running with a decent opening over if you ignore the fact it went for 9. With Faheem opening from the other end bowling an exceedingly tight line finishing with figures of 3-21 from 12 overs – you might think can we lose? However, on comes Callum Herd, 8 overs 1-52. I think in hindsight he bowled too long although he was causing trouble for the batsmen when they weren’t hitting him over the fence. Blair bowled a nice 10 over spell 3 -34 and a wicket for me left us chasing 169 with Crathie 8 down. We fielded well without any dropped catches with Blair taking an absolute screamer off his own bowling diving full length to snuffle the ball. Clark bowled well but failed to take a wicket but overall we felt confident with the small boundary that we could knock off the runs.
Connor and Ahmer opened the batting but things got off to the worst possible start when after smashing a four Ahmer was caught in the first over. On came Rob who steadied things and batted well scoring 21. However, Connor and Blair fell cheaply soon after and things were looking bad. But Rob and Pradeep batted well with Pradeep almost hitting a half century falling two runs short. This knock included 3 sixes and a solo four which made things interesting. However, it was not to be enough and with 4 ducks to follow after Fionnlagh scored 6 which included a play for a penalty whilst running between the wickets which Howard Webb quickly waved play on things weren’t looking good. I came out number 11 to save the game. However I didn’t have to face a ball as Pradeep fell victim of Bestwick who’s 5 for and 50 was surely a match winning performance for Crathie.
In the end a most enjoyable game although I feel we are yet to see the best from this talented group of youths. Michael Zanre summed it up beautifully “A successful first game as captain” me “But we lost?” As long as Zanre thought it was a success then I’ve done my job.