The U11's took on a strong Great Totham, in a home game where Braintree were looking to win after their home defeat in their first game of the season. Captain Will Sherry was stepping in this week was relaxed, using his experience over the past 3 years to arrange his team. Braintree welcomed Dylan Aziz, one of Braintree’s new additions to hard ball cricket, making his debut. 

Having lost the toss Braintree were asked to bat on Braintree’s usual flat deck and Totham’s opening bowlers Magnus Roots and Eli Hawes started positively with one wicket. Whilst a wicket fell, our openers, Sherry and Bertie Burnside, were anything but discouraged. From solid cut shots for four, to hitting strong cover drives, Sherry hit 21 runs off 12 balls, whilst being thoroughly supported by Burnside, who’s speciality is running quick between the wickets. Having 227 off the first four overs, the batting looked positive, but Totham had fast pace bowlers up their sleeves, bringing Jacob Day and Ralph Larkin onto bowl for the second pair.

Keeping their bowling tight, batters Jake Lee and Zachary Peacock, awaited the wider balls, and took the singles when they could, picking up 6 runs for the total, with the fall of one wicket. Next pair into bat saw debuting Aziz and Elliot Partridge take on some more strong bowlers, another wicket falling, and a few singles were taken, with the help of some extra took the total to 245.
Looking for the final push, the innings finished with Harry Macklin and Archie Lake, who did well to keep the ball out, pushed everything away to hold the total, and whilst only taking a few runs for the score, finished Braintree on 247.

With a lower than hoped for total, Braintree knew they needed to keep tight in the field and take some wickets, which they were good at.
Opening the batting, Totham opened strong, starting with Ollie Tolhurst and Hawes. Both known to be strong batters, they were looking to score big off their set. Sherry knew what he was in for and set a defensive field, pushing fielders to the boundary to save the fours, and give them quick singles. This worked well, keeping the runs below Sherry’s high flying opening score. Partridge sent the bails soaring, hitting off-stump, whilst taking 5 off Totham’s total.

With the next pair in, Peacock’s line was attacked in his first over, but he pulled back in his second, taking another 5 runs with Henry Keogh’s wicket. Nicely following this up was the mini dolphins captain, with Sherry only going for 5 runs off his two overs. A brilliant run out was also achieved through top fielding, and a wicked take behind the stumps by keeper Jake Lee. With a levelled 227, the second half of the innings would need a strong fielding effort to keep the runs to a minimum.
Braintree bought on Burnside to continue the bowling streak; Burnside bowled spectacularly, going for only 2 runs off his first two overs. However, with runs being picked up elsewhere, Totham’s score was increasing, with the need for some wickets. Burnside took this in his stride, keeping his line, sending the bails flying for himself, taking another 5 off the total in his third over.

Coming down to the last over, with the oppositions score 10 above the dolphins, two wickets were needed. Sherry came on for his final over, no runs were taken, and for a nail biting finish, took one wicket on his last ball, bowled once again.

Whilst our mini dolphins lost by a mere 5 runs, they fought hard and know the corrections to make when going into their next game. They will be rearing and ready for their game this Sunday away at West Bergholt. Whilst a loss for some can find you low, our mini dolphins are brilliant at working hard and keeping their heads up looking for the positives and improvements. Well done all, see you for the next one!