Group Stages
Caldicott (40 -2) beat Amesbury (36-1) by 4 runs
Rokeby (50-0) beat Amesbury (39-3) by 11 runs
Amesbury (32-2) beat Arnold House (31-4) by 1 run
The day started off superbly for Henry, who claimed 2 wickets in the first over of the game. It was a very close fought game against Caldicott, Amesbury just game up short by 4 runs. This was our first game of this format so it gave us an immediate understanding of how to approach each match.
The second game saw us lose against the eventual Cup runners up, in a game where Rokeby were just a bit too strong on the day.
The third and final game of the group was one that the boys were keen to win to finish on a high before lunch. The game was certainly entertaining, and very closely contested with Amesbury only posting a low total of 32, but one that we knew would be defend able with our bowling. We bowled brilliantly, with Archie taking 2 wickets in his over, and taking the game to the wire when Arnold House needed 3 runs to win off the final over. They got a run off the first ball to leave them needing 2 off 4 balls. We tightened the field and were all on our toes, and after a dot ball off the next delivery, we got 2 direct hit run outs in the next 2 balls to increase the pressure on Arnold House. Needing 2 runs from 2 balls was still in the batsman’s favour, but Ciannan continued his superb over by bowling consecutive dot balls to see us clinch the victory by 1 run.
At lunch the scores were all collated and entered in to a spreadsheet to work out points and net run rate, with Amesbury narrowly finishing above Arnold House by 0.6 on net run rate. This meant we both went through to the Plate competition, but allowed Amesbury to be matched against 4th place from another group in the Quarter Finals.
Plate Quarter Finals
Amesbury (44-2) beat Sunningdale (23-2) by 21 runs
The first knockout game saw us run out convincing winners against Sunningdale, in a game where each individual player performed their role superbly.
Plate Semi Finals
Amesbury (27-0) beat Aldro (25-1) by 5 wickets
The semi finals brought us up against local rivals Aldro, who decided to bat first after winning the toss. Amesbury knew that we had bowled and fielded strongly throughout the day, and if we could restrict Aldro to singles only then we would put ourselves in a strong position. This is exactly what the boys did, bowling superbly, and only conceding one boundary off the final ball of the innings to restrict Aldro to 25-1.
Sam and Josh opened the batting, and were just tasked to rotate the strike and pick up the singles. This is exactly what they did, as well as using the pace well to pick up several boundaries on their way to overhauling the target with 14 balls still to spare.
Plate Final
Amesbury (43-0) beat Ludgrove (37-2) by 6 runs
Josh and Sam continued their superb Semi Final batting performance by managing their innings maturely and calmly to post 43 without losing a wicket. They rotated the strike well and worked the ball in to the gaps to register several boundaries.
With the total that our batsman posted, we knew that we could defend it with our bowling. This is exactly what the boys did, bowling great areas and only allowing Ludgrove singles (which we knew wasn’t going to be enough for them to chase the total). In the penultimate over, with Ludgrove needing 20 runs to win, we knew that this would be a crucial over. Up stepped Casper, to bowl his most economical over of the day, handling the pressure superbly and only conceding 4 runs. This left us the comfortable task of defending 16 off the final over, which we did excellently to achieve the victory and finish PLATE CHAMPIONS.
Thank you to the parents who supported all day, and a special thank you to Charterhouse for hosting a superb days cricket. Well done to the boys on a stellar performance.
Mr Rouse
