After some showers through the day, Ben H kindly let us use the Astro strip as we hosted Winchmore Hill U11As in the Area Semi Final. Missing a few of our strong players for various reasons, we required a step up from a few of our U11B players who have been performing well this season.

Losing the toss and being asked to bowl, our mission was to bowl as many dot balls as possible, and remind our opposition of that every time there was one. We knew that if we got their stronger batters out early, we would be chasing a comfortable total.

Skipper Alfie led the boys onto the field and energy was high. Openers Fin and Ollie stuck to their task, pressure from Fin at one end, and 2 wickets in 2 overs for Ollie at the other (bowling full and straight??). Next up was Josh K and Ben W, both in red hot form this season, and subsequently brought the prize wicket of their skipper, bowled by Ben when he was looking well set.

Sufyan then came into the attack, dismissing their other Borough player with a full and straight one. By this point we were on top.

Our young guns in Dylan S and Dillan P were next up, again building pressure with dot balls. This amounted in a run out chance which Bal took fantastically, having been setting the standards in the field the whole innings. The final overs saw Bal, Sufyan, Kiran and Arjun finish up, none of the overs going for more than 6 runs, and wickets for Sufyan and Kiran.

Winchmore set us 113 runs to win, just under 1 a ball, although we probably could have restricted them to under 100.

Bal and Arjun opened up, and the key was not giving our wickets away. If we batted our overs, we won the match. They negotiated the first few overs well, but pressure for runs was building, and eventually Bal was trapped in front LBW.

In came our captain, Alfie, looking to accelerate the run rate and put some pressure back on the Winchmore bowlers. He and Arjun shared a massive 85 run partnership, combining tidy running between the wickets, classy grounded shots, and some massive hits over midwicket from Arjun!

Arjun was eventually caught going for 1 big shot too many, but a crucial 33 including 6 fours put us in a commanding position.

Ollie G was in next and didn't fancy hanging about. He creamed his first shot for 4 through backward point, before being bowled a few balls later by a smart off-cutter.

With only 4 needed to win, Alfie went to finish the game in spectacular style, only to find his leg stump out of the ground.

We had 5 overs to go and needed 4, so there wasn't really any jeopardy, but some crazy heat of the moment running saw Fin run out at the non strikers end.

Thankfully, the menacing presence of Kiran was enough to win us the game, as a quicker ball evaded the wicket keeper and trickled along the boundary for 4, sealing an impressive win.

The boys composed themselves really well under pressure, stuck together and won as a team, which is what it is all about.

The final will be played away against the winners of Mill Hill Village v Botany Bay, with the date to be confirmed in the next week.

Well done all!