New Forest u16 cricketers through to Ageas Bowl indoor league finals

In a competition containing most of the best u16 teams in Hampshire, Dorset & Wiltshire the New Forest u16s booked their ticket to finals night by finishing the regular league season unbeaten with victories over spirited Bournemouth and Basingstoke sides.

New Forest 165-5 beat Bournemouth 145-3 by 20 runs

New Forest won the toss and pushed Joshua Bailey (54 no) up the order in an attempt get off to a quick start. Bailey delivered in style, taking a couple of balls to calibrate his sights but then blasting his way to retirement within a couple of overs and providing New Forest with just the platform they needed. Joshua Royan (59) anchored the innings in his customary authoritative style and in conjunction with Daniel Bailey (16) pushed the score along nicely with the scoreboard showing 80 at the end of the 5th over. However, the lower order misfired and at 88-4 New Forest were in danger of squandering the dominant position they had established. Fortunately, the opening pair returned to take control with some fluent stroke play to guide the total to 165-5.

After the changeover opening batsmen became opening bowlers and Royan (3-0-15-0) underlined how difficult the chase was likely to be with his pacey first over going for just 3 runs. Leg spinner Joshua Bailey (2-0-22-0) turned the ball nicely and Toby Mills (2-0-14-0) proved difficult for the Bournemouth batsmen to get away. Matt King (31 no) anchored the innings well and the middle order all made contributions until a caught and bowled from Daniel Bailey (2-0-28-1) and smart run outs from Jack Harris and Toby Mills stopped Bournemouth from getting on top. Powerful hitting from Axel Deem (27 no) in the number 5 slot looked like it might shift the balance, but his retirement effectively saw end of a good run chase.

New Forest 124-2 beat Basingstoke 121-6 by 4 wkts

Basingstoke elected to bat but again Joshua Royan (2.4-0-20-1) struck early for the New Forest removing Charlie Turner in the first over and Joshua Bailey beat the bat regularly (2-0-11-0) in his spell. Royan then ran out the dangerous Josh Coombs (10) with a direct throw and it took steady knocks from Neil Shell (22) and Aditya Kottapalla (22) to stabilise the innings. Daniel Bailey (2-0-20-2) then struck twice in his second over with Jack Harris taking a good catch behind to dismiss Kottapalla and Shahane was clean bowled 2 balls later. Billy Lewis (30) did well to take the score on to respectability with a good solo knock but when he was run out in the final over by a good throw from Sam Presland Basingstoke looked to be a few runs short on 121-6.

So it proved with Joshua Royan (23) and Daniel Bailey (26 no) looking comfortable as they paced themselves sensibly always just ahead of the rate required. When Royan fell to a catch on the boundary he was replaced by Joshua Bailey (29 no) who completed an excellent evening’s work with some more powerful hitting. Sam Presland fell quickly but Toby Mills (21 no) stroked the ball into the gaps nicely and in conjunction with Jack Harris (6 no) they closed out the victory in the 11th over.

New Forest now move on to the league finals evening on 24th March as top seeds. Photo caption:

New Forest cricketers celebrate their 100% league record & three 16th birthdays this week in fine style.

L-R: Joshua & Daniel Bailey, Jack Harris, Toby Mills, Sam Presland & Joshua Royan