SportCentral Academy vs Holland Under 17s @ Bloemendaal CC – Monday 20^th July 2009-07-20

After the long tedious journey – of 25 mins – caused by the local fascination with cycling and the terrible patter, supplied by Dan Smith, the SportCentral Academy squad arrived at Bloemendaal CC for the first game of their Dutch training camp, looking to cause a major upset in the Holland Camp. Unfortunately, skipper Gary Halcrow lost the toss and we were put in to bat on a slow-ish artificial wicket, with an outfield that looked quite slow because of the long grass.

It was not an easy task for openers Graham Oliver & Dan Smith against Holland’s accurate opening bowlers. Dan was looking solid, but was unfortunately bowled by an absolute Jaffa from van der Harten, clipping the top of off and removing it from the ground. The skipper found himself in early, and he and Graham looked in good touch for half an hour, with Graham pulling like he does at the weekend!

Unfortunately, a change of bowling from the scoreboard end brought a double breakthrough for the Dutch. Rohit Shah bowled Graham a good ball outside his off stump and he knicked it to the keeper who took an excellent, although controversial, catch. Gary was gone not long after, getting caught at mid off to a half hearted shot from the same bowler.

This sparked a collapse of the middle order with Charlie and Scott both falling cheaply. George and Jonesy stuck around for a while, creating a good partnership until George had a rush of blood and tried to launch Nikki Vielle out the park and turned round to see his stumps on the ground. Peter Hamilton and Jonesy again created a partnership, but both fell in quick succession with Jonesy being judged LBW to one that hit him above the pads, and Peter spooning a soft catch to cover point. Chris and Jamie managed to put together a partnership of more than 50 balls, to see us through to the end of our 50 overs with the score at 104 for 9.

After the tea break, the SportCentral academy took the field knowing that a special performance was needed to save the game. Opening the bowling with Jamie McCann and Peter Hamilton, Jamie’s first over produced a maiden, Jamie’s first of the tour!! However, Peter got off to a shaky start, bowling an inconsistent line and length. After the first 6 overs ha gone for 38, Gary turned to George, but his one over consisted of 13 runs coming from wides, and was replaced in the next over by Graham Oliver.

With Jamie and Gary keeping it tight from the pavilion end, apart from the occasional wide by Gary, Graham was able to weave his magic at the other, picking up 4 for 20 in the space of 6 overs. Gary turned to Blair to bowl his off-spin from the pavilion end, and he bowled tightly until Nick Wories and Nikki Vielle got the Dutch over the line, 4 down at the end of the 21^st over.

After a gutsy performance in the field and some good chat, the game was taken by the Dutch. The simple fact was that we didn’t score enough runs and we bowled too many extras.

Thanks go to Bloemendaal CC for hosting us, it was a delightful ground and they catered for us very well. Roll on Wednesday and our game at Rood en Wit CC.

Report by Graham, Gary, Charlie and Dan.

Score card here