A glorious sunny evening greeted us at Coton on Friday to play their excellent girls team. The home team won the toss and put us into bat. We started slowly losing wickets to some very fast and accurate bowling. As a team we have improved our batting and it takes a good ball to get past our solid defence now! Our first three pairs worked hard and managed to record 236 which needed to be increased to give us a total to be competive. Our final pair of Dino and Parth stepped up and batted bravely at times to finish on 275. This total against such a talented bowling unit like Coton was above par and gave us a chance.
Our last visit to Coton was not our best fielding performance as we lacked focus at times. I am proud that tonight we improved on this and our all round commitment and support for each other was fantastic! Bowling again was good with some excellent wickets being taken by the team. Coton reached our total after the third pair but I was proud that the team continued to fight even though the game was beginning to slip away from us. Coton eventually scored 318 but we had pushed them all the way. It is worth noting that most of the girls are in Year 9 and play for the county so we should be very pleased with our efforts this evening.

Individual Fedback
Parth
Again some excellent bowling which included a genuine edge to the keeper for a fantastic opening wicket. Two excellent catches and gre5 batting with Dino completed a good nights work for Parth.
Charlie
Fast becoming a very good keeper who will try very hard to keep the extras total down. Again some excellent diving catches and stops when the odd wide ball is bowled. Two catches today including an edge from the bowling of Parth. Solid batting with Sujey which kept the score ticking over.
Sujey
Bowling today was accurate and fast at times. Excellent running between the wickets when batting.Focus in the field was much improved tonight, well done.
Ibby
Excellent attitude tonight as you had an injury to your thumb. This did not stop you once again being one of our best bowlers in the team. You will be missed on Monday!
Dino
Excellent batting this evening. By far your best performance with the bat this season. Very brave when faced with pace and the odd no ball which you still depatched for for runs. Please try not to get down if you do not get given the third over to bowl. This does not mean you have bowled badly!
Hamza
Well done captain!! You did us proud tonight and organised your team well. Again great bowling with genuine turn on the ball at times.
Wilber
I am so pleased that I picked you again for the U12s. Your attitude is excellent and you never give up. Bowling is a hard skill to master and I was very proud that you kept on trying. Batting was good and you will have improved by playing against such good players tonight. Well done!
Rupesh
You always turn up to each game with the right attitude. You are a team player and will always do your best. Bowling tonight was very good and at times the batsmen found your line and length hard to hit. Great support at times for Hamza and helping him make those important captains decisions.

We lost but we did push them hard tonight. Winning is not always that important so be down and unhappy but try to also pick the positives out as there were many! I promise I am one of the most competitive people you will ever meet and I do not like to lose. At times playing well and doing your best is more important than winning though.