First-Game Defeat for U11s as Mulbarton Triumph in Final Over

GREAT MELTON U11s lost to MULBARTON U11s by 6 wickets at Mulbarton in the South Norfolk Community League

In a closely-fought first match of the season, Great Melton's U11s lost with just 4 balls to spare against Mulbarton who chased down Melton's 86-2 for the loss of just 2 wickets.

Great Melton, skippered by Charlie Green, lost the toss and were asked to bat first. Openers Charlie Green and Ben Johnson played excellent strokes to score 30 before Ben was out for 2 (off 11 balls) caught by Puvanachandra.  Next in was Nat Buxton who continued scoring at a good rate, running well between the wickets. At 46-1, Charlie was bowled by Puvanachandra for 22 which included two boundaries. Cameron Graveling joined Nat and kept up the scoring rate, to take the final score to 86-2, Nat Buxton was unbeaten on 16 and Cameron Graveling's 17 included two fours off the last over.  Mulbarton' best bowling figures were from A.Puvanachandra 3-0-17-1 and M.Burton 2-0-7-1.

Mulbarton's innings was opened by R.Macintosh and A. Puvanachandra. Superb Great Melton bowling and sharp fielding by Ben Johnson, Ethan Rushton, Cameron Graveling, Charlie Green, Dilshan Rai, Ryan Twiddy and Max Wilson produced many dot balls while Nat Buxton was sharp behind the stumps. In spite of a valiant effort by the Melton players, and many different fielding strategies the Mulbarton openers proved difficult to dislodge.

Finally, the first wicket came when Puvanachandra was caught behind, to a good length delivery by Ben Johnson. With only two overs to go the score was 76-1. The 15th was bowled by Charlie Green.  Paterson was run out by Ethan Rushton/ Nat Buxton then R.Macintosh retired at 33 but two boundaries in the last two overs took the game away from Melton, and Mulbarton reached the target of 87 with four balls to spare.

It was a close game with some excellent cricket throughout.

Melton U11's would like to thank Matt & Maxine Rushton for their help with umpiring and scoring as U11s coaches George and David Bunn had other sporting commitments.

Kannan Kuppusamy