Round 1: A proper line-up?
VRA Blue – VCC Red 132/7 – 121/8
The first match of the season, traditionally one of the most difficult ones. And this year maybe even more difficult. On paper it was the replay of last year’s U15 Final. However, with a largely new team it was “just” a first match. It was good to see some new VCC members, some previous U13 players and as well a few familiar faces from last year.
VRA started batting and came to a solid 132 runs. A target that seemed to be achievable. But the first match is always difficult. The players are not used yet to play together. The strengths and weaknesses are not known. Long story short, like each and every season we lost the first match. With our final batsmen having the highest scores of the day and both not out, it looked like some improvement was possible in the batting order. We came close but we accelerated just too late.
Round 2: A Logan van Beek over
VCC Red – Punjab 261/3 – 159
Today we started batting for a change. The best is to not give the opponent the feeling that they have a chance to win. That’s exactly what we did right from the start. Philip and Josh v M did open aggressive. Unfortunately for Josh resulting in a run out due to miscommunication. Rory entered the field and did build-up an impressive partnership with Philip, resulting in the first retirement (Philip) of the season. Connor (42) entered and continued with Rory (46) the excellent batting. But the best still had to come. Steve and Stefan were allowed to finish the last overs. Steve showed what acceleration means. With 30 (!!!!) runs in the final over (4-4-6-6-4-6) he had a real Logan van Beek over. In all the years we never finished the innings with such a high target on the score board (and that against a good opponent). Normally this score would be a guarantee for a win. Just giving no extras away would do.
However, Punjab proved to have some good batsmen as well. After 14 overs they had already a total of 129 runs, still on track. But they did lose a few wickets. When in the 15th they lost 2 more it became clear that they would not make it anymore. After 20 overs the match was over with a total of 159 for Punjab.
Round 3: An off-day
Kampong – VCC Red 218/2 – 153
Where we started the season with a replay of last years U15 Final, we had today a replay of last year’s Semi-Final. With Kampong for a major part having the same team, we knew this would be a tough match. We needed to be at our best, but fortune was not with us. We missed Steve as he had to join U17, we lost the toss, we started fielding and lost Stefan’s bowling power after his first over. He still managed to bowl the first wicket and with a catch after good bowling of Ger (welcome back!) to take the second one, but that was all the positive news in the first innings. Our fielding was slow inaccurate and not sharp enough. Still the target was doable if we could reach the level of our last match against Punjab. But only 12 runs after 5 overs didn’t promise anything good. The only one who kept fighting till the end was Connor. He didn’t want to defeat. But when his retirement was nearby he had to surrender at 53 runs. With only 5 overs left and another 80 runs to go it was clear we would not win anymore.
Round 4: An heroic win
VOC – VCC Red 145/6 – 146/5
New round, new opportunities. Again the omens were against us. This time Philip and Greogory were helping out U17. Due to a last minute injury of Audrey we ended up with one player short. Again we lost the toss and had to start fielding. Helped by a fielder of VOC (thanks VOC!!) we showed we learned from last match and were “on” right from the start. With Audrey not able to play, Stefan not able to bowl and Josh v M. being the keeper there were 6 bowlers left for 30 overs. So they all had to bowl the maximum number of overs. But these 6 (Josh S., Ger, Steve, Rory, Aryan and Collin) did do an excellent job under pressure. They all had almost the same economy, didn’t give any extras away and together ended up with 5 catches.
After the half time break, dark clouds were appearing at the horizon and soon the first rain started falling. It was a bit symbolic. After 5 overs we lost already 3 wickets. Rory who normally defends his wicket very well got bowled, Josh v M. was again the victim of poor communication and Connor our last match hero went even out without a run . . . Due to the rain we had to boost up our run rate above VOC’s. As the match could be abandoned every moment the run rate would determine who would win. On top of that we had a target to beat in case the match would continue. Steven and Steef (to make it difficult for the scorers) started to build a good partnership. Once Steve lost his wicket it was up to Stefan to finish the game. Seconded by Aryan he steadily increased the total of VCC. After Aryan got out the tension increased. But Josh S. appeared to be the partner Stefan was looking for. He peacefully made his own runs and helped to get Stefan on strike as much as possible. Together (Stefan 42 and Josh 10) they managed in the second last over to beat the target. It was a narrow escape, but these wins do feel the best. Special thanks as well to Audrey, although she couldn’t play she was present to support the boys and helped out with scoring. It really was a great team achievement today.