Lancashire Cricket U13s Barbados Tour 2011: Day 9

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Day 9 - Gimme 5

The Lancashire Under 13s continued their excellent run of victories in Barbados with a convincing 126 run win over Alleyne School at the best facility on the Tour so far - the Four Square Oval. The wicket was hard and flat but still surprisingly slow as, once again, was the outfield. Despite the island being on "Flash Flood Alert" the weather was hot and sunny, and the atmosphere became increasingly humid as the day wore on. Of course, whilst the opposition so far has not been to the Lancs standard, one of the challenges for the players (and the coaches) is to cope with alien conditions and to learn how to prepare for games in heat and humidity - rest, hydration and diet have all been stressed and the fitness work during the Winter has clearly paid off as the lads look very sharp and focussed in the field.

Today's Captain was Will Davidson (Cap'n Will) and he unfortunately lost the toss but the opposition opted to bowl. A steady start saw Lancs reach 18 before Lewis Wright was out to a smart catch in the 6th over. Davidson joined Saad Khan at the wicket and the pair added 64 before Davidson fell to another good catch for 23 (82-2) - one thing we have found is that the home team players are generally pretty athletic and very good fielders. Sam Jackson was bowled without score and Lancs were 87-3 but Harrison Phelan steadied the ship and he and Khan took the score past 100 in the 23rd over with Khan posting his 50 soon after. They were cruising until a dreaded drinks break! Khan top edged the first ball after the restart and was caught by the bowler for an excellent 60 (127-4). Chris Brownlow didn't last long - bowled for 1 (130-5) and Phelan followed at 133 bowled for 19. Dan Houghton reached 4 before being stumped in a rather bizarre fashion as the ball spun around in the crease and he lost balance (147-7). James Seward (21no) and Jake Brown (15no) then finished the innings with some breezy batting to leave Lancs 172-7 off 35 overs.

This was the highest total of the Tour so far and it was soon clear that Alleyne were unlikely to get anywhere near. After 8 overs they were 7 for 2 and could hardly get the tight bowling of Houghton and Brownlow off the square. Houghton had the first wicket (0-1) off the 5th ball of the innings courtesy of a fine diving catch by Phelan and Brownlow (who finished with 4.4 overs, 4 maidens, 2 wickets for 0) had the next man stumped by Seward (7-2). Jake Smith took the 3rd wicket, bowling a Viv Richards lookalike (8-3) and the 4th wicket was Jake Brown's first for his County - another clean bowled (11-4). Apparently his Mum's celebrations were a revelation! Smith then had the 5th wicket at 18 thanks to a neat catch by Wright and the next man in was run out without scoring (18-6). Jackson then got in on the act and clean bowled the next batsman with his first delivery (27-7), had the next man LBW (34-8) and the next again clean bowled (38-9) to end his day with 3 wickets for 3 runs. It was left to Brownlow to finish the innings by bowling the last man (whose name was Sobers!) leaving Alleyne 46 all out. The dominance of the Lancs team allowed the Coaches to try a couple of experiments including Jake Brown taking over behind the stumps and Dominic Morris and Saad Khan bowling a few overs.

There was only one official umpire today so a big thank you to Graham Seward (possibly as extravagant as Billy Bowden with his signalling), Marcus Phelan and Andy Brown for standing in!

Tomorrow is the last game of the Tour and should be the toughest test yet as the lads take on a "Best of Barbados U13s" XI at the Banks Brewery ground!