Another glorious British evening with rain threatening and the U11 were back in action taking on Frensham U11 Gold. Eddie lost the toss and Frensham put Elstead into bat. Rufus (4) and Jake (1) faced some tight bowling as the first pair in but defended well as they played up the hill making it difficult to score from straight drives. Danny (17) and Eddie (15) were up next and the tempo changed as some wider bowling brought the short square leg boundary into play. Both Danny and Eddie exploited this well with 6 fours between them. At the halfway mark Elstead were 52/1 and were well set for another ton.
Next up was Lennon (2) and George (4), on debut, who accumulated runs through good singles with clear calling and a flash of great cricket shots. Departing with the scoreboard on 70/1, making that ton was going to need a special effort, a feat Chrissie (8) and Nathan (23) were up to. Using the hill to their advantage they played beautiful cover drives down the ground with 6 fours between them. They made it seem easy.
An outstanding display by the U11s finishing on 304/1. The one wicket Elstead lost was through a fantastic caught and bowled by Jessie.

Team instruction was to defend the short boundary and that is what they did. Rufus (1/5 in three overs), who is becoming a regular opening bowler for the team, kicked off with the fastest bowling of the night, which kept Eddie at keeper well on his toes. Nathan (1/30 in his three overs) who followed, was on the expensive side tonight, however his good line and length played well for the batters. Nathan was unfortunate not to pick up more wickets as a number of lofty shots landed safely. Economic Danny (0/5 in two overs) is turning into quite the spinner pitching one ball on off stump only to narrowly miss the leg stump. In the fourth over after the first ball, came the shout "is she good?" from the non-striker. Swiftly answered by Frensham's coach "Looks pretty good to me!" Yes you guessed it Chrissie (0/12 in two overs) was up, bowling straight with only one wayward ball in her two overs, a great spell.

Tonights secret weapon was Jake. Despite a couple of wides and no balls he baffled the batters and took 3 wickets to end with 3/9 in his two overs. George (0/19) bowled a few pearlers in his spell, showing great promise for the season. Lastly, our keeper for the last match Lennon (1/8 in two overs) completed a fine team performance with the ball. Frensham ended on 263/6.
A big positive from tonight was the enthusiam in the field, strong wicket keeping and an all round great performance by everyone!!