St Mary’s Year 9 & 10 Boy’s cricket team travelled to Walbottle Campus today to play in an indoor friendly. Captain Jack Pilling lost the toss and St Mary’s were asked to bowl first. Jack Pilling got the innings off to a fantastic start, bowling a very tight first over and picking up the first wicket of the day. Walbottle started to pick up runs, and were helped along by a couple of mistakes in the field from St Mary’s. St Mary’s came back strong thanks to 2 outstanding one handed catches from Arran Stewart and Nathan Burd. Hashim Ali bowled brilliantly, taking 2 wickets and hitting the stumps directly for 2 run outs. The boys really bowled and fielded well to limit Walbottle to 38, thanks largely to taking 9 wickets.

St Mary’s started strongly, with Jack and Will Campbell scoring well in in 27 partnership. Things started to go wrong when 8 wickets fell in only 4 overs, largely due to some average shot selection and running between the wickets. Tobin Togy managed to get St Mary’s up to the 38 total of Walbottle with one ball to go, but was unable to hit the final ball of the innings leaving the game a tie.

A super over was decided on to find a winner. This time Jack won the toss and decided to bat. Both St Mary’s batsmen were clearly nervous and feeling the pressure with only 6 balls to face. A huge mix up between Will and Jack caused Will to be run out, before another run out left Tobin well short of his ground and St Mary’s all out for 3. Walbottle knew they needed 1 shot to win the game and came out firing, hitting the first 2 balls for 3 to win the game.

A frustrating way to end the game for St Mary’s who truly did capture defeat from the jaws of victory. There were still some excellent performances from the boys, with the two spectacular reaction catches from Nathan and Arran and the bowling of Hashim being the highlight of the match.

MOM – Hashim Ali

Mr Hook