Weekend report.
2 games for Ollie. Sunday game for the 3rds. He is having to take a step back from the 2nds because there are so many strong senior players competing for selection. All feels a bit village Ben Foakes/Johnny Bairstow
. I don't think it will hurt him- he's still getting plenty of game time. The 3rds also contain a number of his U15 team mates, so it's probably a less stressful environment for him- although he has told me he prefers the 2nds as they take the game much more seriously and he can see the difference. That attitude really sums up his approach to sport. Once again he kept solidly- albeit with little in the way of chances to take wickets. Batting remains frustrating. He isn't batting badly, but a combination of inexperience and bad luck are both working against him! He opened the batting again, and lasted 15 balls. He scored 4 in that time- but looked pretty solid before getting a short one and (correctly) pulling it. He mis-timed it and was unlucky to hole out in the deep. I'm confident if he keeps working hard, and keeps making good decisions, then it will all come together.
The big news was obviously the debut for the 1sts on Monday.
He kept for 40 overs. 5 byes, one being the very fast (for village cricket) opening bowler. According to Ollie he blasted one through much faster than the others. Ollie got a hand on it, but it went for 4. I'm not good enough to know- but I think the usual keeper would probably have taken it. But he's not 13- and Ollie did well. Their keeper conceded 6 byes- so that's a win for Ollie. Edit- should have said, players esp. first team keeper were brilliant with him. So many little tweaks of advice, all of which will make him a better keeper going forwards.
Batting was interesting. Simply- Ollie was going in at #10, and didn't get a bat. Why is this interesting? First of all- he really didn't want to bat. Despite his resilience and commitment, he does worry about letting people down. There's been a bit of chat in the thread about the difficulties of both keeping and opening. Although there is the fatigue factor, once he is batting as an opener the job is simple. Stay in and build a platform. What was very clear until our #7 & #8 saw off the total was Ollie might have to go out to bat needing to chase down 10-20 runs with a few overs to do it and the whole match balanced on his performance. That is real pressure- and he wanted nothing to do with it quite honestly. We can all sit here and (correctly) say that a 1st XI relying on a 13 year old debutant for a win can't blame him- and they wouldn't have. They would have given him 100% support. But he would have blamed himself and felt he was responsible.
The other reason it was interesting was he ultimately didn't get a bat. If this was the normal situation when he was playing senior cricket, I think we would be incredibly frustrated. Obviously it's not a binary choice- open or don't bat- but I think we (and Ollie) would prefer to open than not bat. Even if it's tough.
He needs a slice of luck and a juniors match!
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Topic: Your Season 2023 (Read 28729 times)