Braintree's U15 side suffered back to back home defeats as they went down to Mistley by 38 runs.

Having won the toss and elected to chase Braintree made a great stat reducing their opponents to 25-3 as they took a grip on the game in the early stages. Harry Whitwood trapped Will Dove in front with the score on 11 and with the first ball of the next over Callum Lazarus took a smart return catch to dismiss Stockton and see both openers back in the pavilion with the score on 11

Some excellent fielding by Fraser Lockhart saw his direct hit find Jack Rowland short of his ground and with the score having moved to just 41, Thomas Mellon had Harold Kimble-Smith caught behind by Harry Root to have Mistley reeling.

However, Freddie Brunning and Alex White had other ideas and clawed their side back into the game with a fantastic partnership of 106 which was only broken when Lazarus ran out White with the final play of the innings. Brunning was the main aggressor as he hit 12 boundaries in his 63 not out that came off of just 41 balls while White was content to rotate the strike and watch from the other end as Mistley amassed 147 in their 20 overs.

Braintree needed a positive start but the Mistley bowlers gave them nothing in the early overs keeping a firm grip on the run rate. Pressure eventually told as Abdul Kamran was bowled attempting a big shot to leave the Dolphins 26-1 and that became 28-2 when Adam Westall, having hit 2 sumptuous boundaries, was caughtat the second attempt at midwicket by James Moore.

Callum Lazarus came and went for 1, the victim of a outstanding catch at mid off and Thomas Mellon followed shortly afterwards in similar fashion.

Theo Sherry then joined the in form Toby Adcock at the crease and the pair accelerated the run rate excellently but just had too much to do to threaten the Mistley score. Both players played some excellent shots, Sherry hitting his first 2 balls for 4 whilst Adcock satisfied the purists craving for technical excellence in a new age of ramps and scoops as he drove and cut the ball with style and elegance.

109-4 was the final score and a 38 run defeat and, as always, there were many positives to take as well as learnings. Next game is on Sunday at Frinton starting at 10:00