Played Cricket Wales in their first ECB U14 Group 2 fixture on Sunday 3rd June.
Match Report by Stuart Sheath
Bedfordshire U14s travelled to Abergavenny to play Cricket Wales in their first ECB U14 Group 2 fixture on Sunday 3rd June. It was a momentous occasion for the boys being their first competitive fixture and of course an international fixture!
A glorious day met the boys after a long journey at the spectacularly pretty ground at Abergavenny CC nestled in the Brecon Beacons. Local advice suggested a bowlers wicket and on winning the toss Captain Dilan Sheemar stuck Wales in.
Sheemar himself immediately settled into his rhythm following his return from injury and bowled an impeccable line and length to the 2 openers. He also sprang a surprise by opening with the spin of Vedant Somal from the other end (1-6). Beds were very much on top in the early overs and both bowlers got deserved wickets – both with sharp catches from Nabil Moughal.
The bowling continued to be highly accurate as Sheemar brought on first Ted Walker and Mohammed Malik (0-24) and then Jacques Wildon. Wildon it was who would capitalise and breakthrough with 2 excellent wickets (2-20). Throughout the Beds ground fielding and catching was exemplary on what was a big outfield although it’s slowness allowed pressure to build.
The boys continued to press hard making it hard even for the established opening bat to score at any sort of rate and fine spin bowling followed the seamers as Sam Wells making his debut stepping up from the u13s bowled a fine spell of 10 overs all through ending on 2-24. Leg spin from Ismaeel Nabeen at the other end complemented this superbly and he was to finish with 2-19 from 9. Further effective spin with the odd sharp faster seamer came from Moughal (0-14). Sheemar (7over 1-13) and Walker (6 overs 0-11) closed out the innings as Wales battled well down the order to finish with 133-9 from the full 50 overs.
Overall one of the sharpest fielding and bowling performances we have seen from the boys – especially pleasing given the long journey and a very hot day.
A fine Welsh tea ensued and Beds looked confidently towards the case.
Openers Danyaal Khalid and Tom Grist were faced with some outstanding opening bowling both right and left arm. Grist fell early for 3 after a confident looking start and off drive and Khalid battled hard through the opening spells, only to fall to spin for 11.
Unfortunately as Khalid battled, the Welsh left armer was wrecking havoc, cleaning up Daud Haroon (3), Nabil Moughal (0) and skipper Sheemar (11) to stall any momentum. Keeper Jonathan Huggins got off to a good start as he and Somal looked to build a fightback but he was to fall lbw also to spin for 11. This left Somal to work with the tail. He fought valiantly – again a hugely impressive effort from an u13 stepping up. He was to finish with 19 and built partnerships with Mohammed Malik (13) and Ted Walker (12) as Beds inched towards the total. When Walker was run out, hopes rested with the two u13s as Sam Wells came to the wicket. They put up a huge fight with some fine shots but when Somal went there were still almost 30 runs to win. Again the boys didn’t panic and Jacques Wildon batted very sensibly with Wells. Sadly it was just too big an ask for the last wicket pair and the return of the seamers did for Wells for 16, Wildon ending unbeaten on 4. Total was 123 so we fell 10runs short.
The boys were understandably disappointed and all those small moments came back to haunt our thoughts! However there were some real positives to build on for our next game away to Worcestershire on the 17th June – win or learn remains our motto!
Well done boys and a massive thank you to all the parents who gave up Sunday to get the boys to the game.
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