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VCC U15B: breaking milestones!

MILESTONE DAY FOR VCC U15B

Match day 6: VCC-2 – Bloemendaal/Rood Wit  214 – 152

Sunday 12 June, ideal cricket weather today. Sunshine but with a little breeze. At 9:00 our match against a combination of Rood Wit en Bloemendaal was scheduled. A rememberable day for our U15B team. Today it was milestone day:

  • The first time we breached the 200 runs barrier
  • The first time we had sufficient players sourced by our own team
  • The first half-century of the season
  • The first time we had 2 coaches
  • The first time we did win the toss
  • The first time Stefan did not take a wicket in the first over
  • The first (voluntarily) retirement of the season
  • The first time we did not go all out

Our coaches Babette and Anri

Our coaches Babette and Anri

As mentioned, our first win of the day was the toss. Miraj decided to start batting which seemed to be an excellent choice. He himself started with Aadvik. Long story short, halfway the inning they were still standing on the pitch and had already 84 runs (with extras) on the scoreboard including a boundary for each of them.

In the drinks break the request came from our opponents if we would change our batters. Although both players wanted to remain as long as possible on the pitch, Miraj showed to be a good captain and agreed to give other players a chance to bat. After 2 more overs they would change. Aadvik started well after the break with another boundary but was probably upset by the decision to be replaced that he got bowled with a respectable total of 27 runs.

After the 17th over Miraj voluntarily retired (18 runs). Maybe Bloemendaal hoped that with new batsmen on the pitch they could turn the game. But with Stefan and Albert as new pair that hope was idle. Together they scored 10 boundaries. After a catch Albert was substituted by Ruchir and the score went further up. Just before Stefan was caught as well he could celebrate the first half-century of our season. In the last two overs Ruchir and Arav managed to bring the score above 200. The run out of Ruchir on the final ball did not matter at all. He just tried to squeeze the last run out. End score 214.

Like usual Stefan and Albert opened with bowling. Unusual was that after they opened still no wicket was fallen. In their second overs Stefan delivered first a maiden over, before Albert got the first of his three (!) wickets of the day. Actually all team members do have good bowling and fielding qualities. Summary of today: Ger as youngster of the team both a maiden over as a wicket. Aadvik two overs bowled, two wickets. Miraj a wicket plus a catch. Philip beautiful catch. Although in the end he just couldn’t hold the ball Jonathan tried beautifully to catch a high ball far in the outfield. He managed to get one hand behind it, but was just too late with his second hand. If he could have managed, it would have been a nomination for the catch of the season. And maybe today Steve and Ruchir couldn’t take a wicket, they showed in previous matches already their good skills. Last but not least, I have to mention Arav who saved the team with his excellent wicket keeping. All by all Bloemendaal all out within 24 overs with a total of 152, our second victory of the season. Let’s see if next week we can shine again against ACC.

 

DO OR DIE AGAINST ACC

Match day 7: ACC – VCC-2   180 – 209

Today it is a do-or-die match for our team. If we win we will qualify within the top 4 of our group, which means we will play three more matches against the top teams of the other group. If not we will play against the lower half of that group. A clash against our VCC-1 team is still possible as well, but if we have to win or lose today to play the battle of Westvliet is not yet clear.

As we were still in the winning mood from last week, the toss was ours again. Once more we decided to start batting. Stefan and Ger were our openers. The first over was solid but in over 2 it went wrong for VCC. ACC lined-up their top bowler and with success. Two subsequent wickets (Ger and Steve) were taken.  It promised to become a hard game. But with Albert entering the pitch a strong partnership between Albert and Stefan was formed. The first boundaries were already hit before Stefan scored the first 6 of the match. The partnership came to an end with 73 runs at the score board when Stefan got bowled (19 runs) in the 11th over. Ruchir proved to be a very good substitute. He partnered well with Albert and they managed to bring the score to 131 before Ruchir (18 runs) lost his wicket. Jonathan (2) had some bad luck and got a run-out one over later. Arav and Albert continued with good batting. Helped by the second 6 of the game Albert reached retirement. Aadvik replaced him but was a bit unlucky and got caught soon after. 191 runs at the board and still 4 overs to go. Arav and Miraj managed to cross the psychological barrier of 200 runs. In the end they both got out by trying to squeeze out a few more runs (Arav 17 / Miraj 5) but that did not harm anymore. Endscore 209.

Normally spoken a score of 209 would be sufficient to win the game. Like usual Stefan started bowling and although ACC got a score for a wide and a no ball no runs were made. It promised to become an easy morning. But in reality ACC’s top-batter needed just an over to get in shape. Within 15 overs he got retired helped by 2 sixers. In meantime Steve and Miraj managed to get both a wicket down. Memorable were the 3 overs from Miraj: 1 run, a maiden and again a maiden but with a wicket. Half way the inning ACC had 98 runs on the board and the suspense was fully back. After the drinks break we started sharp. Jonathan bowled a very good over, due to a wide he just missed a maiden over. In over 19 Stefan had his moment of glory: a maiden over with even 2 wickets. The second one caused by an excellent catch from our wicket keeper Arav. Aadvik continued the good VCC bowling and scored another good over with no runs (1 wide) and a wicket. 20 overs completed 122 runs. The last 10 overs we did not get in real problems anymore. ACC did take the risks, stretched it as far as possible, came close but ended the match at 180.

Special thanks this week goes to parents of Steve and Stefan who helped out ACC with scoring. As ACC did not have a scorer available VCC fully manned in the burning sun the scoring table (both the app as the book). It is good to see that we as VCC are managing to get each match sufficient support from the parents. Hope we can keep it this way to the end of the season.

Now we have to wait for the final results to come in before we know our next opponents. It is even not fully sure at the moment if we will end within the top 4 as theoretically VRA-2 can still pass us. However, it looks like we can prepare ourselves for three more matches against top teams.

Over de schrijver

Floris de Lange