Only managed to get 10 players together for an earlier start away yesterday, ended up playing on their 1st pitch as their opponents cancelled Friday evening. Won the toss, batted first we had a father/son pairing that I hadn't played with before opening the batting in what I think was their first Saturday game (For us, certainly). The father scored a great century and his son (12 year old county player I think) batted alongside him for 20 overs or so although he didn't really score any runs. His father was scoring at a decent clip so the run rate was going along at around 4 an over in those first 20 overs.
Main problem was we didn't kick on in the last 10-12 overs of the innings despite having plenty of wickets in hand on a good batting track, I fell LBW to a spinner trying to force it through the legside and the guys after couldn't increase the scoring against some disciplined bowling.
We managed to score 210, which was 30-40 short of what we should have got but after being 70 all out last week I'm not going complain too much
In the end it was too difficult to defend with ten men on a good batting wicket with a quick outfield and giant boundaries but at least it's progress.
On a personal level I feel like I'm finally starting to get the hang of batting, after a lifetime of floundering about like a #11. Averaged 9 in my first season after coming back, averaged just under 11 last year but this year my scores have been 22, 21, 54, 0 and 30 yesterday. I've been out trying to up the run rate near the end in a couple of those innings so I'm tempted to move a bit higher up the order and see if I can't convert more of those 20's into 50's.
Stand still, watch the ball and don't be afraid to block or leave three balls in a row. Why didn't you guys tell me it was that simple!
(Watch as I've jinxed it and fail to crack double figures the rest of the season)