It was a warm, dry, cloudless day and there was plenty of activity at the club. For the U15As, the job for the day was to overcome Potters Bar. Captain Eddie lost the toss and Potters Bar elected to bat first.

Here was a chance to build on the excellent fielding performance from the previous game. Instead, OEs opted for tactics and a game management strategy that was, how to put it, .....experimental. The formula needs tweaking a bit.

The field settings were very aggressive and this worked, up to a point. Both Potters Bar openers were pressured into silly run-outs. But just take a look at how Potters Bar earned their 125 runs:

40 from singles and 2s
42 from 4s and 6s
43 from Extras

Maybe OEs could have afforded to one or two extra fielders out on the boundary. As for those extras......

OEs deployed a total of eight bowlers. Too many changes, even if a couple of them were forced. The two most economical bowlers (Shivam 1-0-2-0 and Ayush 1-0-1-0) were both taken off after one over each. If there was a strategy there, it wasn't obviously apparent.

Potters Bar batted out their allotted 20 overs and OEs were left with a target of 126 to win. Openers Hamish (17) and Avi (70) made a steady start, keeping up with the required rate for the first four overs. Then, they took advantage of a change of bowlers at both ends to accelerate the scoring until Hamish fell in the 10th over with the score on 73. The pair had broken the back of the job at hand and it looked like it would be a straightforward cruise to the target and an early lunch.

Zain (0) and Sami (7) both came and went in quick succession and when Sami fell the score had advanced to 97 at the start of the 15th over. New batsman Abhivansh and Avi added another 6 in that over before treating (or tormenting) the onlookers with an explosive finale in the 16th. First, Abhivansh hit a boundary off a no ball. This was followed by another no ball. Then he hit the first legal delivery of the over to the boundary before taking a single off yet another no ball. This put Avi on strike and he dispatched three of the next four balls to the boundary to overhaul the target in 15.5 overs.

A comfortable win, and credit to all the players for that, but plenty of food for thought for the boys as they contemplate their individual performances. In this league the losing team gets bonus points (on a sliding scale) for the number of runs they score and wickets they take so not only is a victory important, but so is the margin of victory. Those bonus points can and do make the difference in the final league standings.

Still, plenty more games left this season to work on things and tweak that formula.

Written by Chetan Shah