First Ashtead 100 of 2018 In U14 Opener

With an extremely early start for the trek across to Croydon on the doorsteps of Whitgift school the U14 team readied themselves for their opening fixture in the top level Surrey Invitational Junior League (SJIL).

Not sure what to expect other than a really warm morning and a tough test new captain, for our SJIL games, Daniel Geddes unfortunately lost the toss and we were inserted with the new challenge of 30 Overs to battle. From the off a very positive start was made with both Josh Lyon and Daniel pushing the score along at close to 8 an over. Whilst looking extremely comfortable Daniel was unfortunately bowled by an excellent yorker to depart leaving a solid opening partnership of 69. From this point Josh took control emphatically, being given the strike wherever possible by his teammates so that even with a broken bat he started to race through the gears.

32* at the fall of the first wicket quickly became 69* at the fall of the second in a partnership of 42. With Josh dominating as he did it meant other players could chance their arm so even though there was not much support in terms of heavy runs it was great teamwork to give Josh the strike and pick off boundaries where possible.

As his innings came to a close when he was eighth man out he left to a score of 103, including 16 fours and massive 1 six, and standing ovation from teammates on the boundary and watchers alike. A fantastic team effort got us to 186 off our 30 Overs.

An extremely strong opening spell of 9 overs between Ned Hussey and Kishan Patel with pace and accuracy made the run rate look more difficult as the first 10 Overs only went for 36. The changes in bowling came regularly as all bowlers put pressure on and we regularly picked up wickets. There was no stand out bowler as all worked hard bowling tight lines and pressure from the field meant Old Whits could only get within 41 runs of our total.

A strong outing and something to build on for our campaign in arguably the toughest league in our age group.

A fantastic team performance, well done boys.

Scorecard: http://ashtead.play-cricket.com/website/results/3346439