Our Cup Runneth Over but Our Cup Run Is Over

With the East Molesey side containing Saturday 1st & 2nd teamers in Harry Porter, James Cake, Ollie Jennings, Dylan Marx & Matt Tomlinson and
the Reigate side also containing Saturday 1st & 2nd teamers in Jacob & George McLoughlin, Seth McDowall, Will Brewis, Alvin Richard Sathya & Tommy Bates;
this game promised much between two teams who topped their respective East & Central divisions in the ECB U19 T20 competition.

It was to be East Molesey with home ground advantage as Reigate travelled to their ground by the side of the Thames near Hampton Court where they found a green outfield (the water level in the Thames was suspiciously low !!). A warm sunny evening with a 5pm start time meant the light would not be an issue to the team batting second which would be the Llamas as East Molesey won the toss and decided to bat to take advantage of the inevitable scoreboard pressure.

James Cake & Ollie Jennings made good progress and by the end of the 6 overs power play, from Will Brewis and George McLoughlin, had reached 7 an over 42-0.
Ben Ware (2-0-12-0) & Tommy Bates were the next to bowl and it was Tommy (4-0-29-1) who got the 1st wicket having Australian Ollie Jennings (25) caught by Thomas Hart for 79-1 in the 12th over. The next to depart was Moles 1st teamer James Cake who retired on 50 no which brought Moles 2nd teamers Max Tomlinson and Dylan Marx together.

The 7 an over run rate continued as the Moles reached 100 by the 15th over but the 17th over saw a breakthrough as captain Jacob McLoughlin (4-0-25-1) had South African Dylan Marx (21) caught by Seth McDowall at deep long on (117-2).
Alvin Richard Sathya bowled the 18th over (2-0-18-1) which contained 3 wide balls and a straight one that bowled Max Tomlinson (11) and the Moles were 133-3 going into the last 2 overs.

Will Brewis bowled the 19th over (4-0-34-1) and had Patrick Lynch (1) caught by Seth McDowall’s 2nd catch at deep long on for 139-4. George McLoughlin (4-0-29-0) bowling the last over bowled 3 wides before Will Brewis, fielding at deep long on, ran out Tiam Afshar (12) who was attempting a 2nd run and then the last ball of the innings Thomas Harvey James ran out Joel Shepherd (2).

The quality batting performance from East Molesey was helped by not the best bowling performance from the Llamas with 21 wides in the total which saw the Moles post a very challenging 155-6 from their 20 overs.

Seth McDowall and Sam Clark opened the Llama reply with Surrey U18 Harry Porter making life uncomfortable for both openers. Seth (20) tried to counter attack and hit 4 fours but was to be 1st out when in the 5th over with the score at 29 he got an edge to be caught behind by keeper Tim Afshar off Harry Porter’s bowling (3-0-14-1).

Captain Jacob McLoughlin continued to counter attack and hit a four and the only 6 of the game before Jacob was the 1st of the 5 Llama wickets to fall in consecutive overs starting in the 8th over when Jacob (14) was caught at deep long on for a wicket maiden to Max Tomlinson.
47-2 was then 49-3 in the 9th over as Sam Clark (10) also fell caught at deep long on; which was proving to be a busy fielding position with 2 catches for each team as well as a run out.
The 10th over saw Thomas Harvey James overstretch to be stumped for Max Tomlinson’s 2nd wicket with the Llamas 51-4 and then 56-4 at the halfway stage and now requiring 100 runs from the last 10 overs.
The wicket per over continued as the 11th over saw Alvin (6) clip a ball from Patrick Lynch (4-0-21-2) onto his bails for 60-5.
The 12th over saw Jack Sadler (6) out lbw sweeping Max Tomlinson; who would finish with excellent figures of 4-1-11-3 as the Llamas innings was collapsing to 62-6.
The wicket per over sequence was finally broken but just for one over as the 14th over had Tom Hart (4) run out (69-7).
The 15th over saw Will Brewis (13) hit 2 fours before he was also run out with the 8th wicket going down at 79-8.
Tommy Bates (9 no) and Ben Ware tried to get the Llamas to 100 but just fell short as Olly Mills (2-1-10-2) had Ben Ware (8) caught at mid wicket for 97-9 and then had George McLoughlin stumped as the Llama reply ended on 97 all out at the end of the 18th over.

The Llama “Cup does runneth over” with the ability in this particular group of mainly U17’s playing in this U19 competition; but we were outplayed today and “Our Cup Run is Over”