U13 Tour Report

Over the 2017 long Ascension Weekend the U13 Swiss Junior Cricket Team toured southern England to play a planned 5 games of both T20 and longer formats. 
Overall the tour was very successful with an overall record of Played 6, Won 4, Drew 1 and Lost 1.

The tour opened with a T20 match against the Horsley and Send (H&S) in a beautiful setting in glorious sunshine. The Swiss team all arrived in good spirits, sporting new Swiss kit and some new haircuts! We opened with our strongest team to try and get off to winning start and Marc Veal, as captain for the game, won the toss and elected to bowl,
H&S batted first and the coaches decided to save our strike faster bowlers Gianni and Ray for first and second change and opened with Ross and Barnaby for more accuracy. Barnaby particularly delivered conceding only 3 singles from his opening 2 overs. H&S progressed steadily to 26 for 0 off the first 7 overs. Vadim then came back for his second over of leg spin and bowled P Hallam for 6. Ali N bowled the 8th over and bowled J Jury (11) and M Drew (0) with his first two balls! Swiss brought the field in we sought a hattrick in the first game, but the new batsman defended well. This changed the whole momentum of the innings and left H&S on 35 for 3 after 9 of their 20 overs.

H&S then hit back in the 10th over with new batsman T Simmons hitting 4 x 4’s from his first 7 balls. They took 19 off Ross’s second and the 10th over. However his scoring slowed down against the pace of Gianni and accuracy of Ali. He finally fell, just short of retiring, bowled by Kabir for 20. Next over Marc bowled R Wilson for 10 putting Swiss back on top with H&S on 67 for 5 after 14 overs. 
We knew they would accelerate, taking 11 off the 18th over, before Ray skittled both Tom Finch (10) and Jack in the 19th checking their progress. This left Wilf to bowl the last over and tight fielding saw H&S just pass 100, finishing on a very “gettable” 102 for 7. 
After taking seven wickets, all bowled and looking good in the field, openers Ross and Kabir went into the middle confident. They played steadily and looked good, especially Ross who took most of the early strike and hit one glorious straight 4. Unfortunately he got carried away and tried a repeat getting bowled by Ollie for 6 in the third over.

Kabir then consolidated with Max H, with both batsmen looking comfortable and playing within themselves. They raced past 50 in the 9th over, well up with the rate. Both retired Kabir (27) and Max H (20), bringing Wilf and Gianni to the crease. They carried on where the previous 2 left off, both looking in good nick and finding the boundary regularly. They took us past the finishing line in the 16th over to register our first win of the tour. 
H&S kindly offered to carry on and give our lads some batting practice. Gianni (16) was bowled by Tom Franks going for his 4th consecutive 4. Marc Was then caught going for a big hit for 3. Barnaby then treated us to an aggressive batting display hitting 19 off 8 balls before also being caught. Swiss finishing well above 120!
A great all round performance against a strong club, boded very well for the tour ahead. The boys left happy and confident.

After a tough training session in the morning at Deando Ruxley CC, the team met for the second game, albeit difficult to find and time challenging due to Friday evening West London traffic. It was in a fabulous location overlooking the grandstand of Royal Ascot. Louqmaan was captain for this game as RACC elected to bat first. We also agreed to play a 25 over game.
Ross and Ali opened the bowling and kept it tight, although Ali struggled to find the accuracy of the previous evening. The openers looked very good, playing patiently and picking off the bad balls. Ross made the breakthrough in the 5th over, bowling J Jayasingh (10) with the score on 29 for 1 after 5 overs. RACC continued to build steadily until they lost their second wicket in the 8th over, with L Beardmore-Grey being bowled by Sabarish for 2. When Ray had C Dunnet caught well by Louqmaan for 1 RACC were on 52 for 3 after 9 overs.

Opener A Goderslei retired for a well-earned 34 and the very capable middle order of S Negus and S Daniel repacked up the pace. They changed the game and took the score well past 100 until both retired on 30 and 29 respectively. In search of a breakthrough Louqmaan reverted to spin and Vadim broke through having Z Phillips caught behind by Max for 16 off only 7 balls. The score was already a challenging 150 for 4 off 20 overs. With 5 overs still to go the aim was to try and keep the score below 200!

Some excellent end of innings fast bowling by Ray did the trick! He got two quick wickets bowled and a good catch by Ali. In the last over they lost A.Anand to a run out, to finish on 183 for 7. Swiss had battled back well.
We knew this would be a real test. But Kabir and Ross strode out confidently still in bright sunshine. They batted very strongly and capably against a solid seam attack. They took the score past 30 without loss in the 6th over. But then Ross was bowled by A.Anand for 19, being a bit too expansive.  Max P joined Kabir and took the score past 50 before being stumped off the bowling of Jayasingh for 7. The next over saw Louqmaan bowled by Beardmore-Grey for 0 and Swiss were 60 for 3. But with Max H joining Kabir Swiss were still confident.

However it become evident RACC had 4 decent spinners and with the light fading, reverted to accurate spin bowling and a tight field. The Swiss batsman, unaccustomed to this, found it very challenging and the runs dried up, scoring only 8 runs on the next 5 overs. Swiss also lost the wickets of Kabir, finally losing patience and getting out to a good catch for 17 and Marc shortly after, also caught close in off Jayasingh. Max H toiled away and defended well, supported by Sabarish who lasted 10 balls without getting off the mark. Vadim was the next batsman and he showed determination and good defence. But when Max was finally run out for 9 (off 30 balls) our tail was exposed with the score on 91 for 7 after 20 overs.

The game was gone, but we set ourselves the target of getting past 100 runs and batting out the 25 overs. But Philips bowled both Ray and Ali in the same over and finally Oliver was run out for 3 off the last ball with the Swiss on 112 all out.
Despite the defeat, the boys were still in good spirits while the coaches had slightly more to think about!

Swiss Man of the Match: Kabir Mehta

After a one hours drive to North London, the squad met up at St John’s, a beautiful school and grounds in North London. The connection was through Sabarish, who used to be a pupil at the school. It was a great day out, with sunny weather and great hospitality. The school is very keen to host future Swiss tours!
The game would be 30 overs and Marc, again captain for the third game, elected to bat first in good conditions. However Swiss got off to the worst possible start, losing both Ross (0) and Sabarish (0) in the first and third overs. William R had opened the bowling with 2 wicket maidens and Swiss were 1 for 2!

Max H joined Kabir at the crease and they had to rebuild. Indeed they did, both mixing solid defence with good attacking shots. Kabir in particular accelerated nicely but both fell just short of their 50’s, Kabir caught off Viraj for 42 and Max bowled by Arman for 44. 
Gianni carried on the pace, scoring well until he was bowled by Viraj for 30. In the meantime Swiss lost Barnaby (caught off Sandhu for 2), Wilf, bowled by Aron for 8 and Marc again caught off Viraj for 0. Max P and Louqmaan came together for the last few over and both scored well finishing 13 and 9 not out respectively. Swiss closed after setting a challenging 172 for 8 off their 30 overs.

Our only immediate concern for the afternoon session was the amount of pizza our fielders and opening bowlers had consumed at lunch. Ross, ably supported by Barnaby opened the bowling with swing and accuracy. Both struck in their second overs, firstly Ross having Michael caught behind by Max and then Barnaby bowling Arman for 0. St John’s were 11 for 2. 
The next two batsmen looked good and rebuilt over the next 5 overs until Ray continued his good bowling form striking in his first over and removing Viraj caught by Wilf for 10. Kabir then removed the dangerous looking Sandhu for 21 in his first over, a wicket maiden. St John’s were now 50 for 4 off 12 overs. Gianni then continued the trend and bowled Matthew, also in his first over for 9 and now St John’s were struggling a little on 69 for 5 after 16 overs - they were going to need to accelerate to get close.

William came in at no. 7 and after a slow start, began to look confident. The question being could he find a partner to stick around and support him? Sabarish got a deserved wicket on his former home ground in his final 5th over, bowling Harry for 15. Then Vadim had Ben caught behind by Max and St John’s were on 90 for 7 with 10 overs to go. He was followed 3 overs later by Patel well caught by Sab off the bowling of Wilf. Daniel came in and supported William who was heading for an excellent 50. Unfortunately he finished 2 short with St John’s on 139 for 8 off their 30 overs.
Swiss ran out deserved winners after a fabulous days cricket!

We opened against Camberley and Louqmaan, captaining his 2nd game, put them into bat. It seemed a good decision on a damp, slow pitch, as Camberley never really got going. After struggling to 5-0 off 4 overs of accurate bowling from Wilf and Barnaby, they lost both openers in successive overs, Ethan bowled Barnaby for 1 and Noah bowled by Wilf for 3. Barnaby bowling 2 maidens, the second a wicket maiden. Thomas U at 3, showed good resilience without really scoring but Thomas G was bowled by Max P for 0, a well-deserved wicket for the part-time bowler. Sabarish then took 2 wickets in 3 balls, removing Thomas U caught by Max P for 7 and then Kian stumped by Max H for 0. 
Camberley were now on 26 for 5 after 11 overs. Adrian and Bradley showed fight and protected their wickets, but again struggled to score. Swiss rotated the bowling and reverted to a very aggressive field to maintain the pressure. Ollie fell to Oliver, caught by Ray for 7 and Ali completed the wicket taking, having Adrian caught by Sabarish. Camberley struggled to 58 for 7 off their 20 overs. 
With the low total, Swiss reversed their batting order to give some of the other batsman a turn. Would the coaches regret that?
Max P and Oliver opened, but lost Max P in the first over, bowled by Rumaan. When Ray was bowled by the first ball of the fourth over for 0, Swiss were 1 for 2. Ali came to the crease and played some nice shots, but together with Oliver never looked comfortable, being bowled by Ethan for 3. Then Kian struck twice in one over, bowling Ali for 9 and then having Gianni trapped LBW for 4. Swiss were now struggling on 24 for 5….
Sabarish came in at 6 and Barnaby at 8 and showed the others how it should be done, and after seeing off the first few balls, scored freely. Swiss lost one more wicket, Louqmaan trapped LBW by Thomas W for 4, before passing the winning post in the 14th over. 

Swiss Man of the Match: Sabarish

With the first game finishing early, we decided to have a quick 10 over game, Swiss batting first.
Marc and Vadim opened and scored freely, passing 50 without loss in the 7th over. When both retired Kabir and Wilf continued finishing 18 and 13 not out. Swiss finished on a solid 81 without loss in 10 overs. 
In reply Camberley again struggled losing early wickets and only Owen getting into double figures. They finished on 37 for 7 off their 10 overs, with wickets shared between Ali, Max P (2), Gianni, Vadim, Oliver and Kabir.

Swiss Man of the Match: Vadim

Marc won the toss and again elected to bat. Swiss opened with Ross, this time partnered by Gianni. They made steady progress against strong opening bowlers with Ross falling again caught for 5 trying to repeat the boundary of the previous ball. Gianni was joined by Wilf who batted well, especially strong on the leg side, where he scored most of his runs. They took the score to 26 when Gianni was trapped LBW by Holly with the score 26 for 2 after 6 overs.
Barnaby came in and after settling hit a long 6, but again tried to repeat the feat next ball and Kabir took an excellent high catch off Holly. Wilf then retired on 19 bringing Marc and then Max P to the crease. The score was 53 for 3 half way through the Swiss innings. 
Marc and Max forged an instant understanding and batted with a mixture of power and placement, both scoring at more than a run a ball and taking the score to a useful 140 for 4 wickets after Marc was run out on the last ball of the innings.
In reply Max H opened with Alfie and Ross bowled Alfie with a corker for a wicket maiden and leaving T20A on 0 for 1. Tiam was then bowled by Barnaby in the 4th over, continuing the impressive form of this opening bowling partnership and T20A were on 20 for 2 after 4 overs. This brought Kabir to the crease with Max H and having two Swiss batsmen stirred up the Swiss bowlers. But Max H and Kabir were equal to it and Max H continued his impressive form, retiring on 33. Natav came to the crease and was 1 not out when rained stopped play with Kabir on 9 not out and T20A on 51 for 2 after 9 overs.

Swiss Man of the Match: Marc & Max P