A cracking win for the under 13s

The under 13s broke a recent losing streak with a great win at Stratfield Brake on a sunny evening. Kidlington won the toss and opted to bowl first. It was a great all-round performance with the ball, Sam Fransham and Neil Talmaki (3-1-5-1) keeping it tight from the off, both taking a wicket in their first over, Neil with a wicket maiden. All round there was some great fielding, including a direct hit run out from Neil. Didcot's second pairing of Daya (9) and Daniel (10) accelerated the scoring but were pegged back by another run out. Daniel Hunt (2-0-6-0) and Luke Wyatt took turns keeping wicket and were both very tight, letting very little go past. Aaryan Jagnani (2-0-14-1) and Tom Rochford (2-0-13-1) both bowled very well, taking a wicket apiece; and Aaryan took a great catch off Will Keates' (2-0-6-1) bowling giving him a wicket maiden. After Gabriel Tipper's fine spell (2-0-7-0), Sam Fransham (3-0-10-4) finished off the innings by taking three wickets in the last over. The last ball of the innings was a hat trick ball...but it wasn't to be this time! Didcot scored 63-8, a net score of 223.

In reply Aaryan and Daniel had a great opening stand, scoring 25 runs between them for the lost of just one wicket (a run out caused by loose pads - have to get that sorted for next time!). Tom Rochford and Neil Talmaki came up against the fast bowling of Didcot's Grace; Tom gave an excellent display of well-judged defensive batting, allowing Neil to score 18 runs at the other end that included three fours. Gabriel and Sam came to the wicket knowing that they just needed to play safe and that's exactly what they did, adding 10 runs for no loss. Luke Wyatt, in his first under 13s match, and Will Keates batted really well to wrap up the innings, both hitting some lovely looking strokes against some strong bowling. Kidlington scored 70-3, a net score of 255 - taking the game by a comfortable 32 runs.

Gabriel Tipper offers a player's view:

"Our fielding was all right and our bowling was really good. Our batting was also all right. They got 25 runs off the bat and we got 31 runs off the bat. I think the match went very well especially with Sam getting 4 wickets and Neil getting 18 runs. Will and Tom also did well."

A great game by everyone - the whole team put in a fantastic performance with both bat and ball. Well done to all our players! A particularly big shout to Luke Wyatt who stepped up from the under 11s and looked completely at home in the field, behind the stumps and with the bat. Kidlington nominated Didcot's Will as player of the match for his boundary-saving fielding and hostile bowling. Didcot nominated Sam Fransham as Kidlington's player of the match for his three-wicket over.

Many thanks to parents for transport and support, and particular thanks to Mo Talmaki for scoring and Lisa Rochford for being the boundary manager. Next super 8s game is a return match against Didcot on Tuesday 19th June.