U14s win the league

If last week was heartbreaking, this week was quite incredible! It's not often you go into the last game of the season with so many things still possible, but a loss would have seen us finish third, a straight win would see us runners up, but to win the U14 Premier League we needed to win while overturning a Net Run Rate of 3.34.
Preston Nomads won the toss and batted first and scored a very competitive 123 for 3 from their 20 overs. Ben, Adam, Elian and Flynn all got 20s and our bowlers and fielders needed to keep their heads in the knowledge that every run would make the target doubly hard. Henry's 4 overs 1-13 was the stand out bowling, but the positive nature of the fielding stood out and was an amazing team effort by all 11 players.
So out came the calculators! To overturn St Peters NRR we needed to first match then exceed the PN run rate by 3.34. This meant we had 12 overs and 5 balls to score 124 at 9.5 per over. Captain Alec had designed a batting order to go for the quick runs and have batting left for plan B ( the straightforward win) if we perished in the process. We did not! Samir retired 25 off 10 balls including a tremendous straight six, Leo retired 25 off 16 balls with more signature straight hitting, Moses retired 25 off 17 balls with a series of straight 'one bounce fours' and then Stephen 25 off 9 balls including a huge 6 to leg to win us the game! 129 for 1 off 11.2 overs! 68 balls! An amazing run rate of 11.4! This was NOT slogging. The shots were all proper cricket shots, mostly straight and in the V. The Preston Nomads bowling was good! The only bad balls were brought about by the onslaught they were facing. The atmosphere among the boys on the boundary was positive, encouraging and electric. It reminded me of a penalty shoot out with arms locked together in collective belief. Absolutely terrific boys. Well done. You deserve it for your skill and bravery. Next Tuesday is The Cup Final.