Thurs 5th May 2011

Hythe & Dibden 100-6, Sway 120 all out. Sway won by 20 runs

Sway U17’s travelled to the Hythe and Dibden ground for the first match of the 2011 season.

Captain Nailor lost the toss and was put into bat on a grassy wicket with deteriorating light always a factor that could come into play. The openers Moore and Woodfine got off to a slow start, with Moore being bowled by a peach for a duck. This brought Steadman to the crease and these two looked like they were going to get Sway up to a respectable total with a decent partnership. Woodfine however was dismissed after making a good start (14) and Steadman conspired to run himself out for 27 after launching a huge six over long on. Nailor and Gallagher were now at the crease. Nailor with his antique bat clubbed two boundaries before the dead middle of the relic sent the leather straight down the throat of deep extra cover and he was out for a cameo 8 of 4 balls. Gallagher looked like he would offer sufficient support for new bat Symons until the end of the innings until he holed out. This brought the experienced Twenty20 night-watchman Holyhead to the crease, who stuck around with Symons keeping him on strike with good strike rotation. Symons was knocking the ball to all areas of the park without risk, picking up regular boundaries without ever looking like he would be dismissed. His knock of 39 not out led Sway to the par score of 120 all out after the tail was dismissed cheaply.

Sway took to the field and opened the bowling with the orthodox off spin of Nathan David. This tactic proved ineffective as he was clubbed for 2 boundaries off his first over. Woodfine had the ball at the other end and showed fine control of swing, bowling a maiden in his first over. Nailor brought himself on after David, but this proved a mistake as the wrong footwear selection led to multiple face plants on the wicket, much to his teammates’ amusement. This lead to him bowling off a 2 pace run up and so lacked any wicket taking threat. Woodfine bowled a tight spell but failed to pick up a deserved wicket. Hythe looked like they were good for the win at this point as they had all 10 wickets in hand and were on top of the run rate. Nailor decided to bring on his most reliable bowler, Holyhead. This proved a superb decision as Holyhead claimed the wicket of the potentially destructive Harry Smith with his 2^nd ball. Holyhead continued his fine spell finishing with figures      (4-1-20-2). At the other end, Steadman was also piling the pressure on the Hythe batsmen, also producing (4-0-20-2). The end of Steadman’s spell led to a tactical ‘shoe-swap’ meaning Nailor could then bowl his erratic full pace demons. Nailor lacked confidence in the first few deliveries of his 2^nd over as he did not trust the icy surface. However after going for 8 off his first over, he recovered to finish with figures of (4-0-20-2) picking up 2 key wickets of dangerous top order batsmen. Sway had bowled and fielded so tightly during the game that Hythe now needed more than 10 per over. Woodfine’s 2^nd spell was dispatched to all areas of the ground going for multiple boundaries. Tight bowling at the other end meant that Hythe still needed around 30 runs off the last over. With all the regular bowlers bowled out, Nailor faced the dilemma of who to bowl the final over. In the end he turned to impressive debutant, Jacob Hargrave. Nailor had seen his ability to bowl consistant line and length in the nets and he recreated this in the match situation, going for only 13 against a really well set batsmen who knew that 6’s were required.

Overall a very promising start to the season from the Sway U17 Knight Riders (so named as there games take place at ‘k’night). Laurie Symons claimed man of the match for an excellent batting performance coupled with tidy work behind the stumps.

Report by Will Holyhead & Sam Nailor