Burgess Hill U11s (272 for 6) beat Rottingdean U11s (267 for 7) by 5 runs.
Henry Short, captain for the day led the team to a scintillating victory and our first win of the league season. Burgess Hill batted first, and after a slow start, Harry Hammond scored a notable 13 runs to get us on our way. George Kaye and Freddie Burcombe were the only pair not to lose a wicket scoring an impressive 24 runs off the bat. George top scored for Burgess Hill with 19 runs. Finners Brown and Jake Armstrong also completed their batting stints with positive net runs (4 and 5 respectively). Oli O’Reardon scored an impressive boundary in the final over of the innings as we posted an impressive score of 272 – a competitive total for Rottingdean to chase.
After a solid start to our bowling, Henry Fortune took 2 wickets from his first over. Tight bowling from Jacob Franklin, and wickets from Finners and George in the middle of the innings put pressure on Rottingdean’s run chase. However, Rottingdean’s third pair of batsmen piled on the runs. They scored an impressive 28 runs over 3 overs. With four overs to go, Rottingdean were on 270, only 2 runs behind. The incredibly tight bowling of Henry Short, Harry Hammond and Jake Armstrong, together with impressive wicket keeping from Ted Cornish at the end limited Rottingdean to an innings total of 267, six short of the target. Two run outs in the final four overs hindered Rottingdean’s run chase. The first of these run outs was the moment of the match. Harry Hammond fielding square on the boundary and with only one stump to aim at, smashed the stumps with a direct hit. Nine jubilant boys jumped on Harry and that momentum change in over 17 really helped them get over the line.
The children played with great sportsmanship throughout and were a credit to the club. Let’s see if the momentum of this great win will help them in their next match. Well done boys!!