HYTHE & DIBDEN COLTS CRICKET

MUDEFORD Vs HYTHE UNDER 17's

Played @ Mudeford Rec 6th June

Hythe’s unbeaten run comes to a disappointing end at Mudeford despite Matt Howe’s unbeaten fifty.

Hythe arrived late at Mudeford’s ground and off the back of three straight wins thought another would swiftly be coming their way. Mudeford won the toss and elected to bat on the Astroturf, a short boundary and fast outfield making for good batting conditions.

Hythe opened with their usual pairing but line and length on our pitch is bread and butter stuff for the batsmen on the Astroturf as the Mudeford openers quickly found their stride. New Milton player John Nicholls taking immediately to the Hythe attack as he strode to his 51no. The lack of pre match practise started to show as misfields from Hythe including dropped catches proved costly, the start to the innings summed up by a return to the stumps that hit the keepers’ helmet. James Carse managed to haul in the electric start to the Mudeford innings by taking a couple of wickets but he was the only bowler for Hythe to end with any respectability to their figures with 4ovs 30runs 2w.

Some late aggressive hitting by Bannister who struck a huge six high up on the tree on the deep boundary pushed Mudeford to 162 for 3 off their 18 overs with Bannister contributing 46no.

Although Hythe new this was a par score for the conditions it was a daunting score none the less. Hythe opened with Moore and Porter who propped the score onto 17 in the third over before Porter was bowled for 8. Matt Howe came in to join Moore and the two took the score to 51 before Moore was caught for 15 attempting a big hit. James Page came in and gave ample support to Howe as they tried to keep up with the high run rate which at times tipped 11 an over. Just over half way Hythe were half way to their target as they lost Page LBW for 9 with the score on 84. With ten an over needed, Rich Last came in and joined Howe in striking boundaries which included a straight six for Last and a pulled six for Howe, Last finally departed for a positive 19 ending a promising partnership. Two balls later Powell was LBW for a duck and Hythe’s task seemed to get harder.

With the rate still at around ten an over Howe retired for (52) which exposed Hythe’s tail. The scoring was left to Ben Smith who hit a valiant 12 before being unfortunately run out going for a third by a direct hit and with that Hythe’s run chase petered out to 149-9 just 13 runs short – a total possibly reachable had Hythe maintained their previous good fielding.

Toss Won by : Mudeford

Innings of : MUDEFORD 162 for 3 (18 Overs)

Hythe Bowling

Innings of : HYTHE 149 for 9 (18 Overs)