We turned up at a sunny Bredbury with four under 11s, 2 players playing their first game for the club and a first-time captain.

Anything could happen.

Areesh got his first job of the day right, winning the toss and choosing to bat. We got off to a steady start, before losing Dan to a good ball. Our all under 11 pair of Matt and Zohaib then put on a breezy 22 before Matt fell to another good ball.

Skipper Areesh arrived and played second fiddle for a while as Zohaib smashed it, before he joined in with boundaries of his own as they put 44 runs on together. Zohaib retired as he passed 30 – a splendid innings. Areesh fell just short of his retirement.

The innings went the full 20 overs – with Jasper finding the boundary with ease, supported by Matteo at the end. 113 was an excellent total.

Our bowling quickly proved too much as Rahim, Jasper and Matthew quickly and cheaply removed the top 4 batters – supported by economic spells from Areesh and Zohaib.

This meant that it was possible to spread the bowling around and offer valuable overs to everyone.

Special mention to George – keeping wicket in his first under 13s game and conceding no byes.

Result – we won by 40 runs. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as me!

The scoresheets have been added to the photos. Thanks to Stuart for doing the book for us.