A strong Pocklington U15 side hosted Malton and Old Malton in our latest U15 Div 2 fixture in on the main square. Sitting joint top of the league, Pocklington went into the game with high hopes of victory on a sunny but blustery evening.
Electing to bat first, Malton's innings was built around Kendrew's solid 33. After some initially wayward bowling, Pocklington settled down to good line and length bowling that restricted the flow of runs.
Wickets, however, were harder to come by, primarily due to the number of dropped catches. Your correspondent stopped counting once he had run out of fingers to count on! On another day it would have proved more costly but as it was Malton finished on 80 for 4 from their 20 overs with the wickets going one a piece to Joe Girking, Evie Nightingale, Tom Pearson and James Sweeting.
In reply Skipper Will Atkinson and Lewis Chaplin raced to an opening 50 partnership inside 8 overs before both perished in quick succession after a great display of power strokeplay.
The momentum was maintained by George Moorhouse and James Sweeting, the latter hitting 12 from just 4 balls, before finish-line fever got the better of him and Ollie Scott was left to hit the winning runs in the 11th over.
In contrast to Pocklington's fielding, Malton threw themselves about in the field, chased every ball hard and were unlucky not to hold onto some very hard hit chances, but ultimately Pocklington's batting line-up was too strong and we head into our final league fixtures 2 points ahead in the race for the league title.